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How hard would it be to take a working ffc driver from android 2.3 and edit it to work with android 4.0+? It seems like it would be easier than writing a whole new driver from scratch. I searched the forum as well as google but could not find any other info on it. Is this feasible or is it not compatible at all. I have no experience with kernels, only slightly with C, so I'm not sure how it would work.
22andrew22 said:
How hard would it be to take a working ffc driver from android 2.3 and edit it to work with android 4.0+? It seems like it would be easier than writing a whole new driver from scratch. I searched the forum as well as google but could not find any other info on it. Is this feasible or is it not compatible at all. I have no experience with kernels, only slightly with C, so I'm not sure how it would work.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not a dev but I suppose if the two existing drivers shared enough code and you were able to write from scratch what was different or missing it would be possible. I think actually problem is htc never has released the new driver publicly .
nrvlljr said:
I'm not a dev but I suppose if the two existing drivers shared enough code and you were able to write from scratch what was different or missing it would be possible. I think actually problem is htc never has released the new driver publicly .
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yes. I knew they ceased development on the EVO without releasing anything (shame). Correct me if i'm wrong but the driver is held in the kernel? If there are any posts about the development of said driver, could someone point me to it? I would love to get involved into android dev. Thanks
22andrew22 said:
yes. I knew they ceased development on the EVO without releasing anything (shame). Correct me if i'm wrong but the driver is held in the kernel? If there are any posts about the development of said driver, could someone point me to it? I would love to get involved into android dev. Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
From what ive read you cant really do that since theyre two whole different OS's and you would have to start from scratch and build your own driver unfortunately. :/
So why can't that file(s) be taken from another phone? There are plenty that have 8mp Rear and 1.3mp Front w/720p Video. HTC Inspire,Huawie Mercury to name a couple. Both got ICS. I have came close to just flashing an ICS Ron and seeing if I could find the Camera for one of those and flash the files to see what happens. Problem is I don't know anything about porting. But,from all I have read the most important would be making sure the same brand Camera is used. I also suppose 4G would be borked but Wimax is dead so no biggie.
Fangstien said:
So why can't that file(s) be taken from another phone? There are plenty that have 8mp Rear and 1.3mp Front w/720p Video. HTC Inspire,Huawie Mercury to name a couple. Both got ICS. I have came close to just flashing an ICS Ron and seeing if I could find the Camera for one of those and flash the files to see what happens. Problem is I don't know anything about porting. But,from all I have read the most important would be making sure the same brand Camera is used. I also suppose 4G would be borked but Wimax is dead so no biggie.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The problem with just taking the camera app is that the driver is not contained in it. It would probably fc upon opening, let alone get all the way to the ffc. according to Wiki, drivers are either located in the kernel itself, or in "/system/lib/modules/" I have looked in the folder specified, and could not find the driver for the ffc, only wimax, and two files named "bcm4329" and "sequans_sdio". Im pretty sure those are not the ffc, but maybe if the kernel from a phone with similar hardware was reverse engineered, and the code taken from it, that would be the closest.
That's what I was talking about. I said files because not sure if it is a Kernel or some other form. I had downloaded Sabasa_Prime from here. I was going to take everything that had the word Camera attached and move it in via Root Explorer but the way I understand it that won't work. Is why I asked about someone trying to port the needed things from another phone.
Fangstien said:
That's what I was talking about. I said files because not sure if it is a Kernel or some other form. I had downloaded Sabasa_Prime from here. I was going to take everything that had the word Camera attached and move it in via Root Explorer but the way I understand it that won't work. Is why I asked about someone trying to port the needed things from another phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh, sorry. I didn't read that correctly. I'm not sure how similar the camera would need to be in order to steal its driver. It seems like it could work, however in reality, the hardware is connected differently passing through different circuits, but that could be solved by looking at how previous versions of android calls for the camera. If I only had the time and patience I may take a peek into the kernel when I get home from vacation.
The Rom is designed for the Desire HD but there is an accompanied file for the Inspire users. Not sure what is in them because I never opened them. Wouldn't really know what I was looking at anyway. I did however search and compare them aide by side and that is the one thing the Inspire and EVO have in common,Cameras and Video quality. But,I believe I also read somewhere that they must also be the same brand hardware and I have no clue on how to find that out. I tried to search but no luck. I mention it because I am sure there are those around who have the knowledge to know if that matters and how to find out if they share the same hardware if it does.
Fangstien said:
The Rom is designed for the Desire HD but there is an accompanied file for the Inspire users. Not sure what is in them because I never opened them. Wouldn't really know what I was looking at anyway. I did however search and compare them aide by side and that is the one thing the Inspire and EVO have in common,Cameras and Video quality. But,I believe I also read somewhere that they must also be the same brand hardware and I have no clue on how to find that out. I tried to search but no luck. I mention it because I am sure there are those around who have the knowledge to know if that matters and how to find out if they share the same hardware if it does.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's what I thought. I think the closest we can get is taking a kernel from a phone with similar hardware, taking a kernel from the evo with a working ffc, look at how it's called for, combine that with the code from the kernel from the other phone, and that would get you close. I will see how similar the code is for the ffc, and see what I can come up with.
Hi,
I just upgraded from HTC Explorer (legacy device) to the Samsung Galaxy Nexus 2 days ago. I had some issues with the phone and HTC, and I'd like to know how it goes with the Nexus and Samsung.
When you root your phone, does anything happen to your warranty?
When you unroot your phone, can Samsung still see that you have rooted it before? Does something still happen to your warranty?
If the second question is a yes, can you unroot the Nexus as to not show signs of rooting?
The Nexus has 16GB internal memory, and no external memory correct? It seems that about 4GB goes to the system by default. Where does that go exactly?
I know you can store media on the remaining 12GB, but if you wanted to, could you also stuff 12GB of apps into the phone, or is app storage limited?
Is 12GB enough storage? (provided you don't keep loads of movies on your phone)
I tried to play 2 different 720p videos with MX Player app. One lagged, the other didn't. Which 720p can Nexus play, and which not?
Is it just me or does the Nexus not have a FM radio?
Anything else I should know?
Djalaal said:
Hi,
I just upgraded from HTC Explorer (legacy device) to the Samsung Galaxy Nexus 2 days ago. I had some issues with the phone and HTC, and I'd like to know how it goes with the Nexus and Samsung.
When you root your phone, does anything happen to your warranty?
When you unroot your phone, can Samsung still see that you have rooted it before? Does something still happen to your warranty?
If the second question is a yes, can you unroot the Nexus as to not show signs of rooting?
The Nexus has 16GB internal memory, and no external memory correct? It seems that about 4GB goes to the system by default. Where does that go exactly?
I know you can store media on the remaining 12GB, but if you wanted to, could you also stuff 12GB of apps into the phone, or is app storage limited?
Is 12GB enough storage? (provided you don't keep loads of movies on your phone)
I tried to play 2 different 720p videos with MX Player app. One lagged, the other didn't. Which 720p can Nexus play, and which not?
Is it just me or does the Nexus not have a FM radio?
Anything else I should know?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It doesnt have a radio tuner and yeah mate there are tools you can use that will root and unroot your nexus to stock and im pretty certain your warranty repair guys wont notice a thing . With the system taking up 4gb im not certain about. Of course the more apps / music / games / data you have on your phone it may cause lag. Its best just to keep it to a minimum for a fast zippy phone, but each to there own. I believe you still shouldnt have issues with close to full memory. Install a custom rom like rasbeanjelly and francos kernel and u should be loving your new nexus. Goodluck mate and welcome to the nexus family
I see. So what tool can I use to root my phone, so that I can unroot it without a trace afterwards?
And what happens if the Samsung guys can see the phone was rooted. Will the warranty be void?
And can anyone else tell me where the 4gb of internal memory the system uses goes to?
Another thing, those 3 buttons that are always at the bottom of the screen, I'd there a way to change what that does?
Djalaal said:
I see. So what tool can I use to root my phone, so that I can unroot it without a trace afterwards?
And what happens if the Samsung guys can see the phone was rooted. Will the warranty be void?
And can anyone else tell me where the 4gb of internal memory the system uses goes to?
Another thing, those 3 buttons that are always at the bottom of the screen, I'd there a way to change what that does?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1626895
there's a part about rooting.
probably not, just relock bl
use a custom launcher to assign actions to nav bar buttons without flashing a custom rom.
Thanks for the link. It's very useful information on how to root the nexus. However, it does not say much regarding warranty and rooting.
Can anyone tell me with certainty whether it is possible to unroot the nexus in a way that the samsung warranty guys can't tell the phone has been rooted?
Djalaal said:
Thanks for the link. It's very useful information on how to root the nexus. However, it does not say much regarding warranty and rooting.
Can anyone tell me with certainty whether it is possible to unroot the nexus in a way that the samsung warranty guys can't tell the phone has been rooted?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yes. its called factory images and relocking the bootloader.
Hey guys I can root my phone no problem my only concern is that i can't access it as a USB device any help on how I can do that?? want to transfer some games and movies to internal memory really bad... all I get when I connect it to windowsXP is if I want to open with Windows media player.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda app-developers app
So when you relock the bootloader, it will say "locked" and not "relocked"? That was the case with my previous phone you see. If it says "relocked", it's obvious that it was unlocked before, and warranty would still be void.
And some random thought I had. Is it possible to replace the battery of the nexus with a more powerful one? Like put a note's battery inside a nexus. Or are all batteries of different sizes or sth to prevent this?
Djalaal said:
So when you relock the bootloader, it will say "locked" and not "relocked"? That was the case with my previous phone you see. If it says "relocked", it's obvious that it was unlocked before, and warranty would still be void.
And some random thought I had. Is it possible to replace the battery of the nexus with a more powerful one? Like put a note's battery inside a nexus. Or are all batteries of different sizes or sth to prevent this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It says locked or unlocked. Nothing else
And you can buy larger capacity batteries but it has to be for the galaxy Nexus specifically
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2
I see. That is a major improvement from my old phone... So if you don't need to worry about the warranty when rooting your nexus, is there anything else stopping people?
There is a risk of bricking your phone right? But I suppose it's only when you don't fully know what your doing.
And I read something about security issues when bootloader is unlocked? I don't really understand that one.
How real are these issues? Cause the way I see it, the benefits of rooting seem much greater than the cons. Am I right?
The nexus is unbreakable, unless you don't know jack****.
Beamed from my Grouper.
No offense, but it sounds like you don't need to be messing with this kind of stuff quite yet. Keep reading up on stuff man. We all start somewhere.
Ah, don't worry kwkslver. I'm only asking these things about warranty to decide whether to root the phone at new year, or to wait until the warranty expired.
I'll read plenty about it before I actually root it. I didn't come across as a careful guy to you??
However, if I follow the guide to root the nexus to the letter, a guide which worked for so many, I should be alright even if I don't have much background knowledge. Having said that, you know a good place to read up about how android works?
Say, my Nexus is becoming slow. Hanging a lot. Any way of knowing why this is, what app does this? And how to solve it?
Djalaal said:
Say, my Nexus is becoming slow. Hanging a lot. Any way of knowing why this is, what app does this? And how to solve it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Look at running apps in system/apps. Same as using task manager on a pc.
063_XOBX said:
Look at running apps in system/apps. Same as using task manager on a pc.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I know that much, but even when it only runs d basic apps it runs with startup it hangs wen I open, let's say, Watsapp or chrome.
So does dat mean d problem lies with one of those startup running apps? Or can hanging also hav other causes? Like temp data junk or sth. Altho it doesn't help wen I restart d phone.
For a while now I've suspected widgetzoid app of making my phone slow. Anyone knows anything about this?
All I know is if you're rooted you wouldn't need it.
063_XOBX said:
All I know is if you're rooted you wouldn't need it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Care to elaborate? What won't you need if you root, and why?
Oh, by the way, I found out what made my phone so slow and hang a lot... Please spread the word, never make widgetzoid application an administrator. The difference after I turned that off is huge. Maybe I'll delete the whole app. It's a shame though... Such a useful apps.
One question hasn't been answered yet... Some 720p videos lag, some don't. Even if both are hardware supported. I use MX Player. Any idea why it would lagg. Has anyone played around a bit to see what video it can smoothly play, and which not?
Another thing. Is it normal for the Nexus to get quite hot during heavy use?
And sometimes the phone hangs for quite a while, and it goes back to the four coloured 'X' you see when you boot the phone, shutting everything down. What's up with that?
I have done a general search on Google and found several articles relating to this subject, but when I searched XDA I didn't find anything conclusive or useful or even informative. The Samsung Galaxy S4 was supposed to be at least a 16GB phone. To me, that means 16GB of usable space to install apps. I knew there would be some bloatware, but when I got my SGS4, I was annoyed to see that the device memory total space was only 9.72 GB, and the bloatware was installed in that space! That left me with only a measly 8GB to install my apps. So where did the other 6.28 GB go? From what I read, it was used by the "system" and hidden "Samsung recovery partitions".
Well, I do not care about recovery partitions. I would rather trust Titanium Backup and my Nandroid backups and have more usable space than have a recovery partition I can't access. I am stingy with my storage, which is at a premium on mobile devices. I like to have control over every megabyte and I don't like the manufacturer deciding how my space is used. I already got an SD card for it, but I still want that missing space back.
So here is my question; how does one re-partition or re-size the partitions of the internal memory of the Samsung Galaxy S4? I know that linux has some amazing partition editors like gparted that can re-size partitions without destroying them, and Android is based on linux, so is there anything like an "aparted"?
I think in the system partition aside from the actual OS there's an odd 2-3 gigs of temp space to be utilizing during updates via Kiev etc. Since the size of TW roms are so big it makes sense in some weird way.
However anything I've read regarding repartioning is supposed to be pretty risky procedure. A lot of us that have gone to the Google Edition rom are also stuck with the original partitions even though GE rom nearly a gig smaller than TW rom. So especially wasted space for us.
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lazaro17 said:
I think in the system partition aside from the actual OS there's an odd 2-3 gigs of temp space to be utilizing during updates via Kiev etc. Since the size of TW roms are so big it makes sense in some weird way.
However anything I've read regarding repartioning is supposed to be pretty risky procedure. A lot of us that have gone to the Google Edition rom are also stuck with the original partitions even though GE rom nearly a gig smaller than TW rom. So especially wasted space for us.
Sent from my GT-I9505G using Tapatalk 4 Beta
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
See, that's exactly what I am talking about. I don't plan to ever update my stock rom via Kiev, assuming I ever update it at all, since I flashed a modified stock kernel to get root. Where did you read about repartitioning being risky? I couldn't even find that much. Is it equally risky for all devices, or do the more modern devices have more options? I also flashed the Google Edition rom hoping to get the space back, but nope! It really sucks that a non-touchwiz, non-samsung rom would still allow a wasted partition.
Zaron DarkStar said:
See, that's exactly what I am talking about. I don't plan to ever update my stock rom via Kiev, assuming I ever update it at all, since I flashed a modified stock kernel to get root. Where did you read about repartitioning being risky? I couldn't even find that much. Is it equally risky for all devices, or do the more modern devices have more options? I also flashed the Google Edition rom hoping to get the space back, but nope! It really sucks that a non-touchwiz, non-samsung rom would still allow a wasted partition.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In order to partition that internal memory you have to wipe it. And that means everything. System, recovery, download mode, boot loader, everything.
The connection with Odin or adb at this point would be totally housed in RAM. It would need to maintain that connection in order to complete the task of adding the new partition, adding the download mode back, adding recovery, and finally the ROM itself.
If the phone lost its connection during that process or lost power or the update process got pushed out of ram for any reason the phone would be hard bricked as there would be no way to reestablish communication with it to restart the process. You couldn't power it on or boot it to anything. It would be a $600 paper weight.
Meanwhile the alternative option is to just go buy an $8 external 16gb SD card or a $20 external 32gb SD card. That carries no risk whatsoever and expands your phone's storage well beyond the original 9gb of usable space you started with.
Sent from your phone. You should be careful where you leave that thing.
Skipjacks said:
In order to partition that internal memory you have to wipe it. And that means everything. System, recovery, download mode, boot loader, everything.
The connection with Odin or adb at this point would be totally housed in RAM. It would need to maintain that connection in order to complete the task of adding the new partition, adding the download mode back, adding recovery, and finally the ROM itself.
If the phone lost its connection during that process or lost power or the update process got pushed out of ram for any reason the phone would be hard bricked as there would be no way to reestablish communication with it to restart the process. You couldn't power it on or boot it to anything. It would be a $600 paper weight.
Meanwhile the alternative option is to just go buy an $8 external 16gb SD card or a $20 external 32gb SD card. That carries no risk whatsoever and expands your phone's storage well beyond the original 9gb of usable space you started with.
Sent from your phone. You should be careful where you leave that thing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks! And yes I also hit the thanks button . I had no idea that partitioning the internal memory was THAT risky. I am surprised nobody has come up with a better way, like how you would boot from a CD to partition your computer. Maybe a way to boot from external SD or something? It also makes me curious; if the manufacturer started with blank internal memory, how did they write the initial recovery and ROM to it in the first place? What are they able to do that we can't do?
Zaron DarkStar said:
Thanks! And yes I also hit the thanks button . I had no idea that partitioning the internal memory was THAT risky. I am surprised nobody has come up with a better way, like how you would boot from a CD to partition your computer. Maybe a way to boot from external SD or something? It also makes me curious; if the manufacturer started with blank internal memory, how did they write the initial recovery and ROM to it in the first place? What are they able to do that we can't do?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Your computer has a bios that exists on a saparate chip from everything else. The bios is like a pre-boot that waits for you to hit the power button, then it looks for a hard drive with an OS to get going the rest of the way. If it doesn't find a hard drive it will look to a CD ROM drive that will take the next step.
The operating sysem resides on your hard drive. So you can wipe your hard drive and the bios will at least let the computer physically turn on.
On your cell phone all that stuff resides on the same internal memory. So if you wipe it clean, it doesn't even have something like a bios that can look for a secondary boot option on an SD Card.
Samsung probably programs the memory chips on a separate machine before they even put them on the mother board. Think of an old 8 bit Nintendo. Super Mario Bros. exists entirely on the game cartridge. It's pre programed to hold the game. You then take that game cartridge (which is essentially just a memory chip on a circuit board inside the plastic case) and insert it into the Nintendo in order to boot up the game. Without the game inserted the power button just blinks and the Nintendo doesn't know what to do. Same thing with your phone. Samsung programs the memory chip somewhere else, then puts the fully prgrammed chip onto the mother board and it boots up. (This is a VERY generic example. There are about 500 things that are different about how these two sysems boot. I am well aware of this. I jus used it as an example to help clarify the concept.)
Skipjacks said:
On your cell phone all that stuff resides on the same internal memory. So if you wipe it clean, it doesn't even have something like a bios that can look for a secondary boot option on an SD Card.[/I]
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ugh that seems like a bad design choice. And all manufacturers are doing this? Nobody has managed to squeeze in a separate chip for the recovery, even on tablets?
Skipjacks said:
Samsung probably programs the memory chips on a separate machine before they even put them on the mother board.[/I]
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So what you are saying is that the process Samsung probably used can't be used after the chip has been placed in the phone without extreme risk? Got it.
Zaron DarkStar said:
Ugh that seems like a bad design choice. And all manufacturers are doing this? Nobody has managed to squeeze in a separate chip for the recovery, even on tablets?
So what you are saying is that the process Samsung probably used can't be used after the chip has been placed in the phone without extreme risk? Got it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You probably need to unsolder the chip from the board and use a chip programmer to write everything back to the chip.
macaumen said:
You probably need to unsolder the chip from the board and use a chip programmer to write everything back to the chip.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't think I'll be attempting something like that. That would make me even more nervous than wiping the internal memory. I'm a GTAW welder, and I still don't think I would have steady enough hands to go messing with the physical chips inside my phone.
Sent from my SGH-M919 using xda app-developers app
One chip?
Anyway my other question still remains. Android software/hardware is all designed to run off of one internal chip that holds everything? Even on tablets? And nobody has attempted to break this mold?
You can actually adjust the partition details through what is called a pit file (partition information table)
There is a thread where someone was able to create the pit files flashable through Odin. While they are flashable, I have tried everything on my s3 to get it to work. I think there is some bootloader code which ignores unsigned or not genuine pit files. There is just something preventing them from taking effect even though it says it flashed successfully.
You should easily be able to take some blocks from system partition and add them to data without and risks.
Btw it's impossible to hard brick this and the s3. You would just need a jtag device to rewrite the bootloader back to the device. Some people have said that the USB jigs you see on eBay work. And for 5 bucks what the heck lol.
But generally speaking, playing with pit files and partitions can get costly.
Sent from my SGH-M919 using Tapatalk 2
I'm still very interested in this. I intend to only use the Google Play ROM's, which are 500MB, rather than 2GB
Samsung said that the S4's system only uses 1GB more than the S3, yet consumes 2GB more in total :/
DON'T TRY THIS. OTHERWISE IT'LL BRICK YOUR DEVICE
There's a solution for S4 i9500, but apparently it was officially released by samsung. I don't believe samsung or t-mobile will do the same, but I hope so. Or if anything could be done from this to be adapted to m919 would be great.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2429309
Zaron DarkStar said:
Ugh that seems like a bad design choice. And all manufacturers are doing this? Nobody has managed to squeeze in a separate chip for the recovery, even on tablets?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I strongly suspect this goes to how ARM Systems-on-a-Chip work. These devices don't expect to encounter any kind of hardware intermediary between the processor and the chips. That's what the drivers are for. These devices are designed for simple bootstrapping, and the best way to do that is to connect the CPU to a single internal store of flash memory. Also, no device manufacturer expects to need to repartition their internal flashes within the device's working life. The partition sizes were chosen very carefully so it isn't necessary. They trade in some leeway space to be able to "set it and forget it." In the end, they don't expect anyone (including themselves) to tinker with it after it's been all set up. Normal users won't be in a position to encounter the recovery system, and even skilled amateurs trying to fix something mildly serious would find the stock recovery system sufficient. If that doesn't work, it's probably going back to the manufacturer.
Still a bad design.
WhosAsking said:
Also, no device manufacturer expects to need to repartition their internal flashes within the device's working life.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So when they advertise a device as having a certain amount of storage, yet the actual user controlled usable storage space is almost half that, they don't think people are going to have a problem with that and will want to get that storage space back, through re-partitioning if necessary?
WhosAsking said:
The partition sizes were chosen very carefully so it isn't necessary.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The partition sizes weren't chosen by ME, the consumer, owner, and end-user of the device, so it is quite necessary I have control over the storage I paid for.
WhosAsking said:
They trade in some leeway space to be able to "set it and forget it."
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You mean they trade so of MY hardware's capability for the current/future needs of whatever services they might decide to implement, even if I will never use said services.
WhosAsking said:
In the end, they don't expect anyone (including themselves) to tinker with it after it's been all set up.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tinker with all my electronics to suit my needs. I change the partition structure of my computer occasionally when my storage allocation needs change enough that it becomes necessary.
WhosAsking said:
Normal users won't be in a position to encounter the recovery system, and even skilled amateurs trying to fix something mildly serious would find the stock recovery system sufficient.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This isn't about trying to fix a problem. This is about being able to control and use ALL of the storage I expected to have on a device I paid for.
It just sounds like you are making excuses for Samsung. Please don't. It is bad enough that we have to deal with bloatware, but for a manufacturer to reduce a device's functionality, knowing that it is risky/difficult to reverse, for the sake of their proprietary services that the user may not want is just unacceptable.
If I wanted a device where the manufacturer makes the decisions for me the I would buy an Apple. I choose Android for its openness and customizability, so I get annoyed when I see manufacturers deliberately reduce a device's customizability to make way for their proprietary services. I think manufacturers should respect the spirit of the platform they are making devices for, otherwise they are making devices for the wrong platform. More specifically, I think Samsung should respect the spirit of Android, and stop trying to shove their proprietary bloatware down our throats.
Zaron, let me put it another way. The sizes you hear advertised on TV and ads and so on are much like hard drive sizes and the "up to" internet speeds you also see; you're not expected to actually get every last bit that's advertised. The only way you'll fix that is to change advertising laws; good luck trying to get something like that through a legislature.
There's also the fact that those of us here do not represent the typical user of these phones. The average person wants to be able to just get their apps done and be done with it. Quite simply, you can't please everyone, so it's better to annoy a small number of diehard geeks than a larger number of less-technically-literate buyers. As for the "spirit of Android," I don't see any such thing. Android is what manufacturers make of it (like with Amazon). We're talking companies here; not bleeding hearts. For Samsung, Android just happens to be the non-Apple system best at hand. It's not like they're betting the farm on it, either; they're developing Tizen, too, which will be going into their Gear 2 line of smartwatches.
WhosAsking said:
Zaron, let me put it another way.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok let's break this down since it sounds like once again you are making excuses.
WhosAsking said:
The sizes you hear advertised on TV and ads and so on are much like hard drive sizes and the "up to" internet speeds you also see; you're not expected to actually get every last bit that's advertised.
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Click to collapse
I have gotten nearly ALL of the storage space I paid for on EVERY hard drive I have ever bought. There is a miniscule loss for the formatting overhead and partition table, and maybe a couple hundred megabytes for the Windows recovery partition if I CHOOSE to have one. This is quite minor compared to the 500GB - 3TB of space my drives have. On the GS4, I got nearly half, HALF of the usable storage I thought I was buying. There is a huge difference between minor overhead cost and HALF. Also, most of the time I get exactly the amount of bandwidth I pay for as well, for both my home internet and mobile data. It is rare I get any slowdown. So don't give me this nonsense about not expecting to get what is advertised.
WhosAsking said:
The only way you'll fix that is to change advertising laws; good luck trying to get something like that through a legislature.
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I don't need to change any laws to vote with my wallet, which is the only thing Samsung should be concerned with: how customers vote with their money.
WhosAsking said:
There's also the fact that those of us here do not represent the typical user of these phones. The average person wants to be able to just get their apps done and be done with it.
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Really? Because everyone I know who has an Android got one for the ability to customize/tinker with it. But even assuming there is a larger user base I haven't seen that doesn't care as much about customizing, what if said "average people" want to install many apps on their phone? Maybe they want to try out one of the many relatively large Android games on the market. Even an "average" user of a mobile device can do simple math. If they install a few games that are a couple GB each and then run out of space, and then add up the total space they used and compare it to how much their device should have, they would notice they got cheated real quick. All they have to do is go into the app manager in the settings and look at the amount of space used/free to see they don't have as much space as they thought.
WhosAsking said:
Quite simply, you can't please everyone, so it's better to annoy a small number of diehard geeks than a larger number of less-technically-literate buyers.
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I do agree that it is difficult to please everyone. However, who exactly are they pleasing by cutting the usable storage space in half? Answer: nobody but themselves, in order to exert control over their customers. That is all. I have not heard a single person say, "I am so happy with all of Samsung's built-in services, and I don't mind at all that I have only half the space listed on the box!"
WhosAsking said:
As for the "spirit of Android," I don't see any such thing.
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When I say spirit of Android, what I mean is the desire to make a useful device that puts the power of customization in the hands of the user. I mean a device that is the opposite of an Apple device. I mean a device that can be used independently of its creator company. I mean the ability to change the ROM, the launcher, the dialer, the SMS app, and allowing pretty much every other part of the device's software to be modular and customizable. I mean the ability to sideload apps, install other market apps, and not be tied down to one marketplace. I mean the ability to have a device that doesn't make you feel beholden to any entity. That is the spirit of Android. So when a company makes an Android device with features that deliberately move away from customization and towards proprietary dependence, aka dedicating almost half of the SGS4's internal storage for proprietary services, while advertising it as having the full 16GB, that pisses me off. If Android was a religion, it would be the equivalent of blasphemy. When I am in the market for a new device, a company gets my attention by having a more powerful device with more customization options. Also, nothing makes me switch manufacturers faster than when I feel like they are trying to lock me in to their economy.
Now, if you respond to me in the same manner as your last two posts, full of industry excuses and reasons why we shouldn't criticize our corporate overlords, then I will assume you are just a shill, and I will ignore you. I have better things to do than argue with a shill, so prove to me you aren't one.
You're right. It sucks. You should get the entire cell phone industry (valued at several hundred billion dollars) to change its' marketing systems.
Let me know how that works out for you.
The rest of us don't like it either, but we've moved on because we learned how to interpret the manufacturer's claims into what we can actually except to see. Now stop yelling at everyone on XDA who is just trying to explain it to you. We're not the ones who came up with these shadey marketing practices. And just because we understand the shadey marketing practices doesn't mean we support them.
You are preaching to the chior. We all agree with you.
Skipjacks said:
You're right. It sucks. You should get the entire cell phone industry (valued at several hundred billion dollars) to change its' marketing systems.
Let me know how that works out for you.
The rest of us don't like it either, but we've moved on because we learned how to interpret the manufacturer's claims into what we can actually except to see. Now stop yelling at everyone on XDA who is just trying to explain it to you. We're not the ones who came up with these shadey marketing practices. And just because we understand the shadey marketing practices doesn't mean we support them.
You are preaching to the chior. We all agree with you.
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You were helpful to me before, why do you sound so angry now? I wasn't yelling at "everyone". I was disagreeing with one person about the premise that no matter what we do, we should expect to get screwed in some way every time we buy a phone. I don't accept that. I don't even have a problem with people who do accept it, but I do have a problem when people explain it to me, and then sound like they are trying to get me to accept getting screwed. This thread started with me asking if there was a way to easily re-partition the internal memory of the SGS4, and when the answer was basically "no", the purpose of this thread was pretty much served. However, it went on to become a discussion about why things are the way they are, which inevitably led to the business practices of Samsung, at which point it started to feel like I was being told to just accept the situation, which got me riled up. Big corporations wouldn't be big without their customers, so I intend to stay a customer who cares. I won't give in to apathy or complacency, and I won't accept corporate control, even if I can't directly do anything about it. I appreciate the explanations, and I am sorry offended anyone.
My warranty just ran out last month, and like clockwork I'm now having hardware problems. I've owned several Motorola devices in the past and I've never seen one crap out before the 3yr mark. I have an old Moto G3 from 2015 that's still in use after 4 solid years. And my ancient Motorola Triumph was still going strong after 7yrs. In fact it would probably still boot up right now if I could find it. The drastic difference in lifespan raises more than just an eyebrow with me. This is enough of a disparity to raise at least 3-5 eyebrows in my opinion.
Planned obsolescence, coincidence, or something else? Who else shares the same plight, and what are your thoughts on this?
I've attached screenshots, so people can see what I'm dealing with over here. It happens with forced gpu rendering too, so I believe the internal storage is failing. This will happen in any app by the way. Half draws, double draws, failure to resize the app, etc.
Are you using an sd card as adoptable storage, or moved apps to the SD card or anything?
madbat99 said:
Are you using an sd card as adoptable storage, or moved apps to the SD card or anything?
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Nah, it's portable and my apps are using internal storage. It's interesting that you brought that up though. My sdcard occasionally has this issue where certain folders get doubled. I'll literally have two Android folders on external storage right next to each other. Deleting one or both just makes them reappear seconds later. They don't merge either and both contain the exact same data. The only way to fix that problem is by formatting. I've only seen this happen inside of corrupted zip files.
Spaceminer said:
Nah, it's portable and my apps are using internal storage. It's interesting that you brought that up though. My sdcard occasionally has this issue where certain folders get doubled. I'll literally have two Android folders on external storage right next to each other. Deleting one or both just makes them reappear seconds later. They don't merge either and both contain the exact same data. The only way to fix that problem is by formatting. I've only seen this happen inside of corrupted zip files.
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Man, that is weird. Maybe a funky file explorer app?
I mean other than the absolute horrible near inability to even use the phone after it hits 10% battery or lower I didn't experience anything on my g6 play that i had since it first came out, actually just got a new g6 play in july
madbat99 said:
Man, that is weird. Maybe a funky file explorer app?
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Doubtful, I've used the same app for years now and have never seen this. I use an older copy of root explorer pro.
ninjakira said:
I mean other than the absolute horrible near inability to even use the phone after it hits 10% battery or lower I didn't experience anything on my g6 play that i had since it first came out, actually just got a new g6 play in july
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This makes it sound like I just got a bad apple. I forget the statistics but I think it's something like 1/5 of all electronics have some kind of defect. (Though most aren't fatal.) I think I might have a binned down msm8937. If I run cat /proc/cpuinfo on Oreo, it'll return msm8937. If I run that on Pie, it gives me msm8920. They can't both be correct and that might also explain why I was showing 8 cores with 4 disabled way back when on Oreo.
Spaceminer said:
Doubtful, I've used the same app for years now and have never seen this. I use an older copy of root explorer pro.
This makes it sound like I just got a bad apple. I forget the statistics but I think it's something like 1/5 of all electronics have some kind of defect. (Though most aren't fatal.) I think I might have a binned down msm8937. If I run cat /proc/cpuinfo on Oreo, it'll return msm8937. If I run that on Pie, it gives me msm8920. They can't both be correct and that might also explain why I was showing 8 cores with 4 disabled way back when on Oreo.
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Hmmm if you want once I get the chance later I'll run the same thing and see what it says for mine
First thing first, I'm not an tech guru, im just a humble guy wondering things. I dont know any fancy terms you guys use. My only experiense is using Android 9 in my 10y/o gt n8000. So if you guys can explain stuff easily, that would be really nice.
As we all know A71 and M51 are pretty similar on paper. M51 is better on hardware and A71 on software (at least that what i know). So i thougt to myself... is it possible to use A71 rom on M51? And if so, would it let us use Good Lock modules and/or let us record videos in 60 fps?
Also another thing... i have heard that using wrong roms on wrong devices can cause pretty big deals, mainly hard bricking the device. I also heard that even if the specs are similar, things coded differently for different devices. Like chipset id, screen size and stuff like that. Is there any possibility to change A71 rom in a way, like rewriting some parts of the code, to work on M51?
Using Good Lock modules or 60 fps camera is not my goal. I know that there is a few trick out there to make it happen. I just wondered that would this theory work? If anyone can help me in this silly project, that would be awesome. Thanks for reading and have a fine fine day.
John Yankton said:
First thing first, I'm not an tech guru, im just a humble guy wondering things. I dont know any fancy terms you guys use. My only experiense is using Android 9 in my 10y/o gt n8000. So if you guys can explain stuff easily, that would be really nice.
As we all know A71 and M51 are pretty similar on paper. M51 is better on hardware and A71 on software (at least that what i know). So i thougt to myself... is it possible to use A71 rom on M51? And if so, would it let us use Good Lock modules and/or let us record videos in 60 fps?
Also another thing... i have heard that using wrong roms on wrong devices can cause pretty big deals, mainly hard bricking the device. I also heard that even if the specs are similar, things coded differently for different devices. Like chipset id, screen size and stuff like that. Is there any possibility to change A71 rom in a way, like rewriting some parts of the code, to work on M51?
Using Good Lock modules or 60 fps camera is not my goal. I know that there is a few trick out there to make it happen. I just wondered that would this theory work? If anyone can help me in this silly project, that would be awesome. Thanks for reading and have a fine fine day.
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I don't think it would be possible? As good lock is Samsung's properitory software and are closed-source.
it would take a huge kernel rewrite with driver changes and other technical details that I'm not well versed with ROM development to know about.
Just knowing that trying to recreate Samsung's stock roms would be very difficult or impossible to say at least
Kenora_I said:
I don't think it would be possible? As good lock is Samsung's properitory software and are closed-source.
it would take a huge kernel rewrite with driver changes and other technical details that I'm not well versed with ROM development to know about.
Just knowing that trying to recreate Samsung's stock roms would be very difficult or impossible to say at least
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Thank you for your answer.
So, let's say we just flash the A71 rom without any changes whatsoever... would it work, what would be the outcome, what's the worst case scenario?
And is there any method or a way of checking if the rom works without sacrificing a phone? Cuz i bought the phone like a year ago and since then it's price just straight up tripled.
John Yankton said:
Thank you for your answer.
So, let's say we just flash the A71 rom without any changes whatsoever... would it work, what would be the outcome, what's the worst case scenario?
And is there any method or a way of checking if the rom works without sacrificing a phone? Cuz i bought the phone like a year ago and since then it's price just straight up tripled.
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It's probably gonna lead to a brick or not even flash because of incompatibility, even if we tried to flash on Odin
Firstly, thank you for answering my dumb questions. That means a lot for me. I really appreciate it.
Kenora_I said:
It's probably gonna lead to a brick or not even flash because of incompatibility, even if we tried to flash on Odin
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My question is if that happens can it be fixed, like, via TWRP or by any means? Like a full data / cache erase or something like that can fix it?
Brick? Depends yeah we can just by flashing through fastboot again
John Yankton said:
Firstly, thank you for answering my dumb questions. That means a lot for me. I really appreciate it.
My question is if that happens can it be fixed, like, via TWRP or by any means? Like a full data / cache erase or something like that can fix it?
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