text:
How do you set up internet pass-through (reverse-tether) on linux?
I have an HTC Desire S that has the option to connect through usb, and use the computer's internet connection. This works fine on Windows, but I'm struggling to set it up in Ubuntu.
When I plug in and select internet pass-through from the usb menu, the usb1 device is created and I can ping it's ip address. I have tried various iptables configurations and setting up nat, but I'm not sure if I'm doing it right, or if there needs to be some additional configuration...
Thanks for any help.

I got it working using a combination of info from http://trac.osuosl.org/trac/replicant/wiki/ReplicantUSBNetworking and http://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?act=url&hl=en&ie=UTF8&prev=_t&rurl=translate.google.com&sl=auto&tl=en&twu=1&u=http://4pda.ru/forum/index.php%3Fshowtopic%3D187390%26st%3D60&usg=ALkJrhhpaHNlPhZYsjp20Hjs9DfRL4fNog. Answer below.

The following works for a while, but only for the browser.
When you plug in your phone via usb and choose Internet pass-through, you should get a new RNDIS device (usb0 or usb1).
For ubuntu, edit /etc/network/interfaces and add the following lines:
iface usb0 inet dhcp
iface usb1 inet dhcp

This will assign an IP automatically when the device is added.
If a network address is not assigned automaticly to usb0 or usb1 you have to do it manually.
Then you need to set up NAT on your linux computer. Something like:
sudo iptables -A POSTROUTING -t nat -j MASQUERADE
sudo echo 1 > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_forward

You also need a DNS server:
sudo apt-get install bind9

This works for a few minutes, but after a while the phone gives up looking for HTC Sync and disconnects.
For rooted phones
You can connect permanently if you have a rooted phone (fre3vo worked for me).
Execute the following with adb.
Enable usb mode for network and adb:
adb shell echo 6 > /sys/devices/platform/msm_hsusb/usb_function_switch

Assign an IP to the usb0 device on the phone:
adb shell ifconfig usb0 192.168.99.5 netmask 255.255.255.0 up

Add a default route. The IP should be the IP assigned to usb0 in linux:
adb shell route add default gw 192.168.99.1 dev usb0

Set the DNS server. This is google's open DNS server, but it can be the IP of your linux computer if you have a DNS server:
adb shell setprop net.dns1 8.8.8.8

According to legend, you can fake HTC sync by doing the following:
On HTC phones, when you plug the usb and select internet passthrough, it waits for HTC sync and gives up. It is listening on port 6000. So you only need to fake HTC sync with netcat. Try this at the command line:
phoneip=$(arp -n | grep usb | awk '{print $1}') echo -n -e "\x00\x02\x00\x00" | nc $phoneip 6000 > /dev/null
The hex value of 00 02 00 00 is all it is looking for.

@geffchang, Thanks! For windows users, when the mobile is trying to connect via the USB you can run netsh interface ip show config to see all the interface names, and then netsh interface ip show config name="Local Area Connection #2" to get just that interface, where Local Area Connection #2 is whatever the new adapter gets called. You can rename this for convenience.

A made this small bash to automate all.
Just plug your phone in charging mode to your computer and run this bash.
#!/bin/bash
/opt/android-sdk-update-manager/platform-tools/adb shell 'echo 6 > /sys/devices/platform/msm_hsusb/usb_function_switch'
sleep 1
/opt/android-sdk-update-manager/platform-tools/adb shell ifconfig usb0 192.168.99.5 netmask 255.255.255.0 up
sleep 1
/opt/android-sdk-update-manager/platform-tools/adb shell setprop net.dns1 8.8.8.8

get_ip ()
{
ifconfig usb0 | grep inet | awk '{print $2}' | sed 's/addr://' | grep .
}

echo "waiting for IP on computer usb0"
while [[ `get_ip` < 192 ]];do sleep 2; done
ip=`get_ip`
echo "IP adress is $ip "
/opt/android-sdk-update-manager/platform-tools/adb shell route add default gw $ip dev usb0
iptables -t nat -A POSTROUTING -o eth0 -j MASQUERADE

Since I don't have access to Linux machine myself I can't test this solution but you can try the steps described here (Google translation from Russian).
Comments to the translation:

"rutovanym" means rooted;
WB or BB means Big Brother (desktop);
smarta is abbreviation from "smartphone's".

Good luck!

Thanks, but there's an easier way than bridging the interfaces.

Ok, here's exactly what I did, no rooting of HTC desired:
Setup bind9 and NAT etc...
note:
1: if you just do sudo echo 1 > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_forward you will get a permissions error, so here's a script for the process
2: You can make iptables more specific about how it does things by adding parameters for specific devices.

cd ~
echo '!/bin/bash
apt-get install bind9
iptables -A POSTROUTING -t nat -j MASQUERADE
echo 1 > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_forward' > setup_bind9_nat.sh

chmod +x setup_bind9_nat.sh
sudo ./setup_bind9_nat.sh

now plug in you're phone and select 'internet pass through'
wait for the device to appear in:

ifconfig

check it is also in:

arp

I found I had to unplug the device then plug it in again for it to appear in arp, things don't work properly if arp doesn't show the device.
The device will then sit waiting for HTC Sync to send it a message so you have to mock HTC Syncs message:

#change this line to be more specific if you have more than one usb network device
phone_usb_device="usb"
get_ip ()
{
    arp -n | grep $phone_usb_device | awk '{print $1}'
}

#TODO: This needs a timeout and loop needs cleaning up, but works fine and borrowed from another post.
echo "waiting for IP on computer usb"
while [[ `get_ip` < 192 ]];do sleep 2; done
phoneip=`get_ip`
echo "IP adress is $phoneip "

echo -n -e "\x00\x02\x00\x00" | nc -q 2 $phoneip 6000 > /dev/null

I may write a version of this using D-Bus so the latter part executes automatically when the device is plugged in etc....
Ok here's my work in progress, I couldn't find anything 'generic' on d-bus so I opted for a bit of a hack solution using udev.. This isn't perfect, for instance the command gets run twice, so I'll have to see if I can filter the matching parameters a bit better, also add a timeout on the last script, just incase and see if I can replace arp with something a little better, say looking in /proc
here.s my .rules file from /etc/udev/rules.d I created

cat /etc/udev/rules.d/htc-desire.rules

You can call it anything you like but DON'T START IT WITH A NUMBER, that way it gets run last of all.
Add the following to the file as sudo using an editor of you're choice etc....

#KERNEL=="usb?" or DRIVERS=="usb" not sure which is best, may need extra mode information too from usb device.
SUBSYSTEM=="net", DRIVERS=="usb", ATTRS{manufacturer}=="HTC", ATTRS{idProduct}=="0ffe", RUN+="/home/olli/chain_mock_htc_sync.sh $kernel"

Ubuntu is setup to create the file with the correct permissions already

ls -lrt /etc/udev/rules.d/htc-desire.rules
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 248 Jun 26 22:09 htc-desire.rules

Basically, if you don't see those 3 'r's,

sudo chmod a+r /etc/udev/rules.d/htc-desire.rules

Then you'll need two further files, one to chain the other, since RUN from udev will block everything else (even though it's run last!!)...hmm...
anyhow:
I created the files in my home directory for now "/home/olli/" ... so remember to replace the '/home/olli/' bit with whereever you create the files:
so for me, cd to my home directory.

cd ~

create a file called

chain_mock_htc_sync.sh

containing the following:

#!/bin/bash
/home/olli/mock_htc_sync.sh "$1" &
exit

make it executable

chmod +x chain_mock_htc_sync.sh

create another file called

mock_htc_sync.sh

containg the following

#!/bin/bash
#change this line to be more specific if you have more than one usb network device

phone_usb_device="$1"
get_ip ()
{
    arp -n | grep $phone_usb_device | awk '{print $1}'
}

#TODO: This needs a timeout and loop needs cleaning up, but works fine and borrowed from another post.
echo "waiting for IP on computer $phone_usb_device"
while [[ `get_ip`  /dev/null

Make it executable:

chmod +x mock_htc_sync.sh

Hopefully I should have a nice tidied up version soon as pos. (probably tomorrow).


text:
Can't enter < (less than) or > (greater than) in terminal
When I try to type "<" or ">", I get semicolons ";" and colons ":"  any idea?

Note sure if this question should really been have migrated here. But this is a typical case of a vacuum that we have here. It's not really an android end-user question and on the other hand not a android programming question.
Anyway it looks like a typical codepage/localisation problem:

"<" on an US layout is ";" on an German (and maybe others) keyboard layout
">" on an US layout is ":" on an German (and maybe others) keyboard layout

I take a wild guess and say that you develop under Microsoft Windows, where each windows can have a different keyboard layout. You should see a symbol with the current layout right to the clock in the taskbar, where you can change this.
I hope I was able to point you into the right direction.

source: Stack Exchange

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

sort: votes


text:
Why does the Ebay application automatically startup at boot?
I can't find a good reason that this application must always be running on my phone. However, it starts at boot and I'm constantly getting error traces in Logcat about the Ebay application.
Why does this application start at boot?

because it was written that way?

Well it starts because that's how dev coded it.
You can try programs like startup manager that will kill the program once it starts.

Right, which to me is a huge mistake. If I use the application once a month, why would I want it in the background clogging up GC and spewing errors 24/7? I'll have to give some feedback.

all_licenses: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/


text:
Can every Android device be updated to the most recent Android version?
I never dealt with Android devices before so I'm completely newbie at it, please comment if something is too simple.
Say I purchase Android Galaxy Player S WiFi 5.0, that has got Android Froyo 2.2 installed in it.
If there is a new version of Android released tomorrow or next month, will I be able to update it (like I will be able to update my iPod Touch 4 to iOS 5)?

Relevant links: http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/290/why-arent-the-manufacturers-updating-the-phone-to-the-latest-android-version-whe http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/4184/how-do-i-upgrade-to-a-new-version-of-android http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/2695/when-will-my-phone-get-the-android-2-3-update-gingerbread http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/2696/when-will-my-phone-get-the-android-2-2-update-froyo

No. Its up to the manufacturer to release new Android versions for their devices. Some devices will never get a new Android version. Only the devices from Google (Nexus One, Nexus S) will get the latest Android versions early and OTA. The others may get the new version, but it is the decision of the manufacturer.
Custom ROMs may provide a newer Android version, as the last official version that was released by the manufacturer. But this often only applies to popular devices.

If a manufacturer abandons a device, its still possible that CyogenMod or other open source Android distributions could be modified to support the device.  But, depending on the device specifics, that could be a lot of (difficult) work.  If the device is relatively open and popular, I suspect an open source distribution could maintain a device that a manufacturer has stopped updating.

P.T.: Thanks for pointing this out. I have added it to my answer.

**No.** For an Android phone to receive new updates, it must jump through several hoops.
First, Google. When Google releases new versions of Android, they get to determine the system requirements. While they have good reason to include as many devices as possible, they sometimes can't, or have to make hard decisions not to for the purpose of new features. Furthermore, in the future, their motives may change.
Next, OEM. If your phone is not a Nexus or Google Play Edition, the manufacturer of your phone must take the code released by Google and make it work with their drivers, their skins, and their addon software features (like gestures and such.) They may find it is not worth their effort. They also have the motive of planned obsolescence in selling new phones (if you loved the Super Duper X Phone when you bought it, but the new OS offers features you want that aren't available on the old one, you are more likely to buy the Super Duper X Phone II.)
Lastly, carriers. If you bought the Super Duper X Phone for $199, likely your carrier paid the other $400 that the phone actually costs, and plans to extract that money from you in an inflated-price 2-year contract. As the middleman, they likely demanded the right from the manufacturer to install some apps of their own. These apps must be updated by the carrier AFTER the first two hoops have been jumped through. THEN, after that, the carrier must test the new software stack to make sure it does not crash their network.
If your phone makes it through these hoops, then BAM! New OTA software for you. But remember, this process can be short-circuited at any step. Furthermore, those in the process KNOW THIS. So, if you are, say, HTC, and you spend the money, time, effort, R&D to update this phone, you'll want to be damn sure that, say, Verizon will do their part of the job and then finally approve the new version. If not, your effort is wasted. If you are not positive, you might not bother.
A good illustration of this is the Galaxy Nexus. Google made a promise (which I think they meant to keep) that this phone would get the newest updates first, for as long as reasonably possible. Unfortunately, they chose to release a Verizon version alongside the unlocked versions they themselves sold. Verizon dragged their feet on updates, and the Verizon version has lagged behind the unlocked versions for months on new updates.
If you must have the newest updates, the closer the phone is to Google, the better off you are. Choose Nexus first. Choose Google Play editions next. Choose Motorola phones next. Then choose the phone from the OEM with the best track record for updates and the network with the best track record for updates. Or learn to root and rom and take your chances in the Wild Wild West of phone software....


text:
How do I do the equivalent of removing the SIM card in Gingerbread?
I currently have a Nexus S with Gingerbread.  I'm planning to travel oversea and I want to disconnect my phone from my cell phone provider but still be able to use the Nexus for wireless access at airports or hotels.  Is there a way to achieve that in the OS without having to remove the SIM card?

The easiest solution is to simply use airplane mode. The wifi chip still works but the cell radio will be turned off, so you have no voice, SMS or cellular data capabilities. This will be in your settings somewhere, probably Settings->Wireless and Networks->Airplane mode. You may need to explicitly re-enable your wifi after turning on Airplane Mode (ex: my phone disables wifi at first, but I can just turn it back on).
Some phones also allow you to toggle airplane mode from the power menu, but I don't know if this is a standard feature of the Android OS.

Assuming I am in Airplane mode and I either charge my phone or shut it down completely, does the OS keep the Airplane mode state after those 2 actions?

The answer to both of those (on my phone, at least) is yes, though the wifi chip does not automatically enable itself if I turn my phone off and then turn it back on. Minor inconvenience, but all I have to do is re-enable wifi in my settings after booting up.


text:
Can I still get caller ID in Gingerbread without having it as a service from my provider?
In Gingerbread, Settings > Call settings > Additional settings > Caller ID, there are 3 options available:

Network default
Hide number
Show number

I'm currently paying $5 a month to get caller id.  If I were to cancel that service, will the OS still display the caller?

There are providers out there that actually charge you for caller identification??? Is this common practice where you from?

From Toronto, Canada.  We get gouged on all kind of silly stuffs for a lot of money. I've been to developed countries where every new phone comes with caller id for free.

That option doesn't give or take the ability to see other people callerID, it only let's you choose whether the people you're calling see your callerID or not.


text:
Does the stock mail app log out from the mail-server?
There is an email app provided by Android.
Does this app keep the connection alive all the while?
OR
Does it login/logout from the mail server each time it polls for new messages?
If the latter is true, how does one tell the app to log out from the mail?

Is there any special reason why you want to know this? If so, tell us. Maybe there is a different and better answer...

Two reasons
a. I'm paranoid about the connection being on the air (even if encrypted)
b. Bandwidth is at a premium hereabouts, I wouldn't want to poll for mail automagically unless I tell it to; it follows that I'd like to be able to login/logout explicitly

About your concerns:
Connection on air
There is nothing that a log out at the end of every session would improve. If you don't use the email client, it won't transfer any data. And if you use it, it will query the server for new email etc. If the client would perform a log out at the end of every use, it just had establish a new connection again. Conclusion: Data related to the e-mail connection will be the same time on air if you don't use log out as when your e-mail client would log out every time. No gain here. Just make sure that you have enabled a secure encryption.
Bandwidth
You are right, that polling is the worst thing that could happen. But not from a bandwidth perspective. Polling is just a quick packet asking "Is there something new" and the server replying "No" or "Yes and here is the data". The data would be send later on anyways, so no big bandwidth consumption. It is more the battery life that should concern you, when you have a polling e-mail client on Android.
That said, trust the Google engineers to build a e-mail app that tries everything to reduce battery consumption. If you use gmail you are safe, because the email app will use push notifications for new e-mails. If you use an IMAP account it depends on the server if it support the IMAP IDLE extension. If you use POP3 you are doomed, because it's a plain polling protocol.


text:
Why do get SMS send to the wrong recipient ( HTC Thunderbolt)?
My SMS texts on numerous occasions have crossed from one thread of text and gone to a completely different person.  That person usually has recently texted me.  I close out the keyboard and make sure it is going to the right person, hit send, then it ends up going to the wrong thread.
Is there a fix for ?

Sounds like you might be experiencing this bug, which has actually come up on this site previously (related question here).

There are many people facing similar problem here, http://community.htc.com/na/htc-forums/android/f/107/t/12961.aspx?PageIndex=3
The solutions they came up with was:

Use handcent SMS app instead of stock SMS app
Keep low number of messages in inbox
Delete read message
Waiting for Gingerbread update which will fix it

If I were you I'd choose number 1.

See also this bug report on the Android tracker.


text:
Battery life in Samsung Galaxy 3
I recently updated my Samsung Galaxy 3 to Android 2.2 . After the update my fully charged battery dies in just 3 hours(without any use) and around 1 hour if I use it (talking,browsing etc). I am using the phone for the past one year. This is too annoying because I am not able to use it anywhere outside. The battery quickly dies.
When I used Android 2.1 , the battery used to come for 1 full day
Is this battery problem because of the updated from 2.1 to 2.2 ?
Are there any work arounds for this ?

Any abnormalities shows in battery usage?

No. Nothing abnormal as such. I mean what is "abnormal"?

Shows any program eating too much battery? Or why don't you install watchdog and see if any program is eating too much CPU.

Did your display brightness settings get reset after installing the upgrade?  (Or other battery-saving settings that you used to have set that might've gotten reset, like WiFi scanning?)

I switch of wifi when I am not in home, keep the display to minimum. My doubt is , did the battery degrage after using it for 1 year or something ?

Sounds like it's not sleeping properly, though it could be related to battery stats or battery wear.  Are you rooted?  If so I would try clearing the battery stats.

Where your phone fully charged when you updated its firmware?

If not yet solved: You might want to check Battery life cut in half recently - DrReadUsbStatus issue?, which should give you a few hints on how to figure out the responsible process (if any).

You also might want to check How to deal with (orphaned) WakeLocks? -- could be an app misbehaving. // If your problem was already solved in the meantime (as you are not responding to any comments), it would be nice if you add an answer and letting us know the solution.


text:
Can I use an existing Wifi Network as source for internet connectivity and still enable WiFi tethering?

Possible Duplicate:
Can we use an Android phone as a Wi-Fi repeater?

It is possible to use android as WiFi access point using 3G - but, is there a way to use an existing wifi connection and not 3g as the source?
Here where I am there is a wifi connection but it works only with openvpn, so I can use it with a laptop or rooted Android but I also have an iPad which can't use openvpn, so I thought I will use my android device as a private access point for my iPad. Is it possible?

It sounds like you're trying to do the same thing as this previous question abouit using an Android device as a wifi repeater http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/12616/can-we-use-an-android-phone-as-a-wi-fi-repeater


text:
What is the podcast/music syncing experience on android like for OS/X users?
I have been an Iphone user for a long time but I am now considering moving to an Android device (Samsung Galaxy S2). The only thing that is giving me cause for concern is the convenience of the syncing experience.
I use my IPhone largely as a media device that accepts phone calls, so syncing is important for me. I subscribe to podcasts and manage my music using ITunes on a Mac. I then attach the Iphone and press the sync button. Everything else is then automatic, new music is copied to the phone, new episodes of podcasts are downloaded and old ones removed. I then listen to this media in the car using a bluetooth connection. I could not be much happier with that experience at all.
I appreciate that the Android experience will not be as slick as the IPhone one and I can accept that so long as I can get to the same goal, however I do not want to find myself copying files/podcasts manually on to the device.
How do other OS/X users rate the Android sync Experience, and what application do they use to achieve what I am doing with my IPhone.

Asking people their opinions on the user experience is not generally the kind of questions we want here. Please review the [FAQ].

@AlEverett. I do not believe I am merely asking for opinions I am asking people to describe the syncing experience and asking for details of appropriate software to achieve the desired result. There does not seem to be a definitive place on the web where the android to mac sync process is described, I was hoping this might be the place.

No, and there's enough else in your question that it didn't get closed out of hand. Still, this site is mostly for concrete problems with definite solutions. While interesting, your question is not a very good fit.

For things like Podcasts, the experience should be far more slick than the clunky Apple need to plug into a PC and use iTunes. Most services on Android are about the device itself doing all of the syncing directly with the internet, not needing to have a PC in the middle that you have to plug into to get updates.
For Podcasts, you can use something like Google Listen, this keeps the list of your Podcast subscriptions in Google Reader, and syncs and downloads new episodes wirelessly throughout the day (though if you're concerned about data usage you can configure it to only download when you're on a wifi network). I haven't personally used it, but other apps like DoggCatcher keep your subscriptions on the device and wirelessly sync throughout the day in similar ways.
For music syncing, there's nothing built-in, but apps like WinAmp allow you to do a wireless music sync with a PC running WinAmp, again other apps also allow that, but I haven't used them.

What future does Google Listen have now that Google Labs is no more? Also I am using a Mac so WinAmp is not an option, is anyone aware of Mac solutions for automatically syncing music to an Android device.

Sorry, missed the fact you're on a Mac, WinAmp is available for Mac if you want to try that, otherwise DoubleTwist is one option for syncing with a Mac's music library https://market.android.com/details?id=com.doubleTwist.androidPlayer (their non-free AirSync app handles a wireless sync). According to http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/07/more-wood-behind-fewer-arrows.html "many of the Labs products that are Android apps today will continue to be available on Android Market" we don't know anything specific about Listen, except that at least one update has been sent since that announcement.

I've heard good things about DoubleTwist from Mac users, allows you to continue using iTunes to sync your music. Haven't tried it myself since Spotify does enough for me, and iTunes isn't really pleasant on a PC, had enough of it when I had an iPhone.


text:
How can I keep a folder backed up online with continuous syncing?
I've found that the dropbox support for Titanium Backup never works for me amd I've also tried using ubuntuone and idrivesync but neither of these support setting a directory to keep in sync.
Does anyone know of a free service, that can keep any directory of your choice backed up online?
The best would be a scheduled task so that the battery isn't drained by continuous sync.

By "titanium" do you mean Titanium Media Sync? (That's the accepted solution for this related question: http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/1120/complete-dropbox-implementation-for-android )

Actually I didn't know about titanium media, I've edited the question to be more specific about titanium backup. Seen as it's from the same people, I'm not too confident in the dropbox support working for me, much as I love their backup solution

You can use DropSync. It can sync any specified folder and you can setup a schedule. Recent update of free version of the app removed limitation for the schedule.

This appears to be the solution! Currently syncing thanks!

Didn't dropbox native client worked for you?

The dropbox client doesn't appear to work for me unfortunately. I can browse files remotely and open them but I can't keep a whole directory of choice in sync automatically.


text:
Can open an HTML file with Browser but not HTMLViewer
I have an HTML file on my SD card.  Opening it with "Browser" works as expected. However, if I try to open it with the built-in app "HTMLViewer", I receive the following error message:

Web page not available
The Web page at File URI could not be loaded:
The requested file was not found.

Obviously the file is there since I can open it with Browser.  This was not a problem on Android 2.2.1.
Why can't HTMLViewer open an HTML file?

Sounds like an app incompatibliity with newer android versions. This question is imho to localized for an.sx - you should ask the app developer for help.

@Flow pretty sure that "HTMLViewer" is a built-in app, I have it, I've never installed anything with that name, and it has a default Android icon in the "Complete action using" list when I try to open an HTML file on my SD card. On the other hand it is working for me opening an HTML file from /mnt/sdcard/downloads/ on 2.3.3

@GAThrawn Hmm I havn`t seen that app on my android devices. Does it show the source/plain html?

@Flow it doesn't show the source, it renders the web page (as best it can) from the .HTML file. It doesn't show in the apps list at all, just shows up as an option when I try to open an HTML file from the file system (along with the "DB HTML Viewer" and "DB Text Editor" that comes with DropBox, and Firefox).

@Flow GAThrawn is right on. HTMLViewer is a built-in app (I updated the question to say this) and it tries to render the HTML.

@GAThrawn I also have Dropbox and the BD HTML Viewer.  I can successfully open the HTML file using this program if I navigate to the file. However, I get a similar error message if I create a homescreen shortcut to the file using ASTRO file manager and then try to use DB HTML Viewer to open the file via the shortcut.

The HTMLViewer mentioned does not like spaces in the file name. Rename the file with underscore or throw them out.


text:
Need only one icon in the top notification bar for multiple Gmail accounts
I am trying to figure out how to have only one notification icon on the top notification bar for an incoming e-mail for any of my multiple Gmail accounts. This was the way Gmail worked on my phone prior to the 2.3.5 Gmail update.
Now, at any given time I can have up to four little Gmail icons on my top notification bar which is an pain.
Is there any way to change it to the way the notifications worked before?
That is, one icon for all my accounts, and if I receive an e-mail, it sends me to the main accounts page.

That appears to be by design, since you can have separate notifications (including different sounds) for folders within the same account, even. I'm afraid that there's no way to go back with the existing app.

I've had that behavior on my Droid since Android 2.2, maybe even 1.6; not sure of the corresponding gmail versions.   I don't remember it ever working differently.    You could turn off notifications for some of the accounts.

It is almost certainly a new feature, as there was a software update for GMail earlier today. I have gone through the settings, but unfortunately, I can't seem to find an option to get the previous one-icon notifications...

You could set up one of the accounts to read the other accounts; that way you would only need to sync the one email account.
You will still be able to send from the correct account - there is a setting to send from the main account or from the account the original email was sent to.
I use one Gmail account to collect the email from several email accounts (gmail and ISP). I set it up so can I also send email from any of the accounts.  That way I only need to log into one account.

I'm running 2.3.5.2 and I am now experiencing the same issue.
I'd recommend just resetting the app's cache, it may of just got into a muddle.
settings > applications > gmail > click > clear cache

No, it's by design.


text:
Is there any known memory leak in Gingerbread 2.3.3 fixed by occasional reboot? Related to battery usage?
I notice that when I reboot my Samsung Captivate, it runs smoothly for about 2 or 3 days.  After that, I notice that there is a lot more lag with various apps, and the launcher screen is more likely to die and restart, mostly after running the browser.  After I reboot, it seems to behave fine.
Today was one of those days where I needed to restart.  I also noticed that the battery drained much more quickly today (down to 45% after 3.5 hours).  Looking at battery usage stats, Android OS used 41% of the battery.
From talking to friends, battery usage issues are fixed temporarily by a simple reboot.
From other questions on here, people who have issues with lag use various type tools like Watchdog, only to see Android OS using most of it.
Is the battery usage issue and occasional lag issues related?  Is this an issue that is fixed in 2.3.4, or a subsequent version?

I've noticed the same thing with my Droid X. A reboot fixes things but rebooting every couple of days is far from ideal.

I upgraded to a 2.3.4 ROM.  I no longer have the battery drain issue, or the lag issue.  The question is whether or not it was the specific ROM or the 2.3.3 OS, but based on multiple links, here and here, I believe it is a 2.3.3 issue fixed in 2.3.4.


text:
Where's the 8pen Preview Popup?
I just purchased the 8pen keyboard last night, and one frustration I'm having is that I keep having to look around my finger to figure out where the next letter is.
I found this blog post from November saying that the keyboard was now free and also updated to, among other things, include a preview popup that would show where the letters are.
The bit about the app being free is definitely outdated, as there is no free app on the marketplace and the links it includes are dead. It would seem that the preview popup is also gone.
I'm hoping someone can help me either to get the preview popup in my version (2.0.3), or help me find the version that has the preview popup.

You can ask questions about 8pen also on their official support channel at Get Satisfaction: http://getsatisfaction.com/8pen

8pen has now answered this at their official support site:

You're right, in the early version of the 8pen from November 2010, we
  included a popup window. It's now removed, but we are considering
  putting it back again, as you are not the only one requesting this
  feature.
By the way, are you aware of the game "8pen Wordcup", available for
  free on the Market (http://goo.gl/Qvpiw)? That should get you quickly
  up and running with the new layout, so you won't need to be looking
  for letters all the time.


text:
What's the name of the protocol that android devices use in debug mode?
I have a strange Android prototype what we got from a customer. Said customer has forgotten about it, and I'm now fiddling with it to see if I can make it do anything interesting. The device appears to be the same family as the Acer beTouch.
It used to boot fine, but while trying to make it go into fastboot mode it has stopped booting correctly at all. Now it boots up into some weird debug mode. If I plug it in to USB, it shows up on my Linux box as a /dev/ttyACM0 port via Linux's USB modem driver. However, it's not a modem.
If I connect to it via a serial terminal and press RETURN it responds with:
OK

If I type anything else and press return, I get:
NOTSUPPORTED

So, it's not a Hayes modem. It's not Android's fastboot or adb protocols. hwinfo tried to probe it but didn't get anything. Since it's a USB device, I can't get any messages that appears on startup. I've done evil things with a whole bunch of Android devices but I've never seen this before. Anyone recognise it?
(Tips on how to make it boot again would be useful, too; I have found recovery mode --- CALL+VOLUP+POWER, for reference --- but factory resetting it does nothing. I haven't found fastboot yet.)
Update: I was wrong! It is a Hayes modem. It just doesn't understand any commands. So:
AT
OK

But:
ATI0
NOTSUPPORTED

I can't find any commands that make it do anything, not even AT&V or ATS0=0. Which is weird. I don't know why the phone is booting into this mode; probably something's wrong with the root filesystem. Don't suppose anyone knows a magic Android Hayes command to get a root shell, or reboot into recovery or fastboot, or anything that I could try?

That's very cool. I don't think the acer device is the only one that has special boot modes. For instance, Many HTC phones have a mode (whose name I don't know) triggered by fastboot oem rebootRUU. What I'm trying to say is there is probably some documentation of alternative boot modes for acer devices somewhere on the internet.

https://github.com/P1sec/QCSuper

Have you tried using adb from the Android SDK to connect to the device? I believe it's the same protocol also used when the OS is running and connected via USB.

adb won't connect over a serial connection --- it wants TCP or USB only, and doesn't support anything else. I will admit that I haven't tried snooping the TCP connection to see if this is ADB pushed over serial, though.


text:
Can't Add Shortcuts to Home Screen, get Shunted to Folder
I recently started using folders to organize my apps, but I've noticed since then that I can not add any shortcuts to the homescreen. If I try to drop an item on the home screen, it instead gets put into a folder (apparently at random, no less). This happens even if I drop the icon on a completely empty screen with no folders.
If I drag the app out of the folder back to the home screen and drop it, it goes to a different folder instead.
Running Android 2.3.5

What device and launcher? They vary widely.

This is a reported bug which hasn't yet gotten any attention.
A workaround is to use long-press to add items rather than dragging them.


text:
Get profile photo to Android contact manager for non-friend contact from Facebook
I would like to know if is possible import a Facebook profile photo to contact manager for contacts which I don't have in my friend list on Facebook.
For example:

In Android, I have this contact: "John Smith".
On Facebook, there also exists some John Smith, but I don't have a John Smith in my friends list on Facebook.
I would like add his photo from Facebook to the contact manager in Android.

You can manually download the photo and  in your contact manager click the placeholder for photo and chose that File.
As far as automatically importing, your phone can't figure out which "John Smith" is the "John Smith" you want from the list of "John Smiths". The default contact manager can't do this.


text:
Is it safe and stable to use titanium backup and restore at two different android versions?
I want to upgrade an android phone from 2.2 to 2.3.
If I backup apps with titanium backup, will they be restored at 2.3, or will they be conflict because of different android version between backup and restore?
If it doesn't work with titanium backup, then is any other safer way?

It is usually safe to restore non-system apps and their data across different Android versions with Titanium Backup.  I wouldn't try to restore a Honeycomb-specific app on a previous OS version though, as the app itself may be incompatible due to radical changes between 3.x and earlier OS versions.
Restoring system apps and data is very unsafe.  You can introduce instabilities to your device, due to changes in the way system data is handled between major OS versions of Android.
If you are using Titanium, I assume your device is rooted, since otherwise you wouldn't be able to backup app data.  If you also have a custom recovery installed (e.g. ClockworkMod) I would highly recommend doing a full backup of the device, in case something goes wrong.

which are the system apps? are google apps, system apps?

@John Yes. System apps are stored in /system/app/ and Titanium colors them in red.

And as for some system settings as well as common data (e.g. SMS and Call-logs), if you want to restore them, it is strongly recommended to enable TBs "migration" feature for that -- otherwise you may run into trouble with force-closes etc.


text:
making picture frame widget take up entire screen?
On my Galaxy S II, I've added the Picture Frame widget to the second page. It's the only object on that page, but it only takes up 1/4th of the available space.
I tried adding 3 more frames on a lark, but that was more annoying than anything. Ideally, my one picture frame would take up the entire page. But I don't know how to resize it? Surely this is possible...?

If you want a picture to take up the whole screen, why not just use it as a wallpaper?

In Galaxy S2 (Gingerbread 2.3.3) you can resize the picture frame widget this way:

First drag the picture frame to the left top
The picure selection pops up, select pictures that you want and klick OK (save)
Press the picture frame until the phone vibrates and release fast. The display will now show a grid on the screen.
Hold the right bottom "slider" and resize the frame as you like it
Finished!! :D

I have standard launcher as delivered so this should do the trick for most of you :)

You can't re size widget in Android Gingerbread. I don't have SII and can't say but many widget comes in different sizes like 1x1, 1x4 etc. Try scrolling to see if there is other sized picture frame.

This is true, Honeycomb (version 3.2 and above in particular) are the first versions where the stock Android launcher has options to resize widgets. These will presumably be coming to phones in with Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4).

As Roxan says the built-in picture widget in Android 2.3 isn't resizable. As an alternative, you should be able to find  many alternative picture and photo widgets from a quick search in the Play Store, from a quick look many of those offer a range of sizes.
Alternatively you could use an alternate Android launcher that allows you to resize widgets, but this will also change a lot of other things about how your home screen works. If you want to go down that route, I believe that Launcher Pro and ADW Launcher (amongst others) allow you to resize widgets.


text:
How to save a text file from the browser?
I was reading a game FAQ on my Galaxy S II with the stock browser, and was a little surprised that I had no option to save the .txt file to the phone.
Is this possible?

If the FAQ has a link to "View/Download Original File", long-press on it and "Save link".

Dolphin Browser HD has the ability to save the current site that you are viewing:
More -> Save Site

The question does not ask how to save the current site from Dolphin, but how to save a link to a file in general. In most Android browsers you only need to long press on a link and choose 'save link'


text:
How do I enable call waiting notification when I am calling another person?
When I used my previous phone, when I am calling someone, I used to get a notification if the party that I am calling is in another call and I am waiting. I usually don't like to disturb people when they are in another call so I promptly hang up. But I've noticed that my HTC Desire S does not tell me that information.
Is it by design ?
Is there anyway I can enable this feature?
An app perhaps?
Or are all the phones running Android have this feature turned off ?
Just to clarify, I am NOT looking for activating call waiting on my phone so I get an alert when another person is calling me. I want to know when a call I initiated is in call-waiting on the other end.

It's maybe a provider feature on the side which get's called. I think that there is no setting for this in Android.

My HTC one s has the same issue with jelly bean. I've called HTC support and they answered that this is not a phone problem, but instead it's a software limitation, then, i asked that lady if HTC knows what's better for me, so i don't need to know if i disturb someone or not...
I am waiting for solving with real interest.

Unfortunately, most (maybe all) of the Android phones don't have this option. Check this issue: http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=7048

All complaints seem to be by HTC and Motorola users. I've never bumped into this problem on Samsung phones (Galaxy 3/S/S2/Tab), so it's not all Android phones that suffer from this.

The setting is under Dialer. Just click on the Dialer, got to settings -> additional settings and then select the check box opposite to Call Waiting option.
This option was changed in ICS update I believe.

This problem does not exist in Samsung Mobile. I dont know much about HTC. You can consult to servie centre. May be there can be any setting issue.


text:
Music Player Not Displaying Songs?
I am using a T-Mobile G2 running Android 2.3 and recently had to replace the phone with another as the old one was bad. I then launched the stock music player with my SD Card inserted and I viewing "All Songs" I noticed I was missing songs. I went to the Artist and could find the missing songs. What I am confused about is how to get the default Music Player to show those songs in the All Songs list.
I was looking at this question and the answer provided: The music player keeps displaying deleted songs. How do I remove them or refresh the library?  I found the program and the cache was empty yet the "storage data" had info but when I went to clear it it gave me a warning saying this would clear all accounts and data etc. What will this clear if I choose this option? I do not want to lose other information.
Beyond clearing the media data is there any other steps that I should be using to try and get these songs to display?
It would be nice if in the options it gave a refresh music library option, other smart phones give this and I would assume Android would also but it is not there!
Note: This issue was not there on the old G2.

I think that's a sort of "generic" warning that shows up anytime you clear the data for a system service. I cleared my Media Storage data just now and I'm not noticing any other missing data (accounts, system settings, etc) but I'll dig around in some menus/apps for a bit to be sure.

@eldarerathis - Thank You Very Much. All help is appreciated.

I haven't looked exhaustively at the filesystem itself (didn't use adb shell or anything), but I'm fairly positive the warning is just a generic message that shows up whenever you clear data for an app or system service. I tried a couple of different apps and services and always saw the warning. After clearing my Media Storage data and unmounting/remounting my SD card I had:

All of my music still available (after it had a chance to rescan)
My Google Music account still set up and properly linked
My ringtone still set to the correct song on my SD card
All other accounts and settings normal

So basically, everything excepting the actual list of songs on my SD card was retained, and the list was refreshed after I remounted the SD card, as far as I can see.
Other than clearing Media Storage data, the only other thing I've tried to get my music to update is just unmounting and remounting the SD card (or using an app like SD Rescan to do it for you, as mentioned in the other question). I've personally had kind of mixed results with this, but the clear data then remount cycle always seems to work.


text:
How do I unlock the bootloader on my Sony Ericsson Xperia mini pro?
I own a "Sony Ericsson Xperia Mini Pro" (model number SK17i) running Android 2.3.3 (Kernel 2.6.32.8-perf, build number 4.0.A.2.335). It's branded by Orange Austria. I'm looking for a way to root it, but all I could find doesn't help. I've read the xda-devel thread on rooting my phone and followed the xda-guide mentioned there. That doesn't work as planned.
The problem seems to be the branding. Fastboot won't recognize my device since I'm not able to unlock the boot loader. The phone just goes to normal charging mode, when I press [volume down] while connecting the USB cable (volume up will do nothing).
Hence my question: Is there a workaround to unlock the bootloader or an alternative way of rooting? I looked and found a method of unlocking the bootloader using the device's testpoint. According to one post there, the author succeded in unlocking his orange branded phone. For me the method described there results in a frozen s1tool and no effect on my Xperia.
Thanks for your help.
Edit:
Now it seems that nothing can be done if dial *#*#7378423#*#* -> "Service Info" -> "Configuration" -> "Bootloader unlock allowed:" says No.

Because your phone is branded by Orange Austria, the SIM card is likely locked.  SonyEricsson states: ... you can’t unlock the boot loader if you have a SIM lock protected phone
http://unlockbootloader.sonyericsson.com/which-phones#13182586887331&if_height=1139

I don't get it, why some people say phones cannot be unlocked. Some other people (in the other threads) are saying that if you give them a call and say that you are going overseas and need your phone unlocked, they would unlock it for us? So doesn't that mean that phones can be unlocked?


text:
I it necessary to SIM unlock my Samsung Galaxy S2 to use a custom ROM?
I want to upgrade my Galaxy S II to Android 2.3.5, and my provider only has 2.3.3. So I have to use a ROM from samfirmware.com. Do I have to SIM unlock my phone before installing one of these ROMs? Do I have to root it?

The Galaxy S2 has an unlocked bootloader, which means you can install any rom on it, rooting is not mandatory, some roms have root privileges, some don't.

Also, it's not necessary to SIM unlock. This is separate from the bootloader being unlocked.


text:
Installing Android on a ARM tablet

Possible Duplicate:
Can I install Android on my non-Android device?

I have a Toshiba Journ.e Touch (ARM processor) with Win CE on it.
I want to replace it with Android, but I faced a lot of problems.
First of all, I'm totally new to the Android world, so I'm not even sure it is possible to do something like this.
Second I came across a lot of distributions, mod's and other stuff, that I'm not sure which is the best choice.
Can someone point me to the right direction?

It's not that easy to port android on a tablet. Android is able to run on ARM architectures but there is a lot of modification work that needs be done to have a usable port on a particular device. You have to start from scratch if there isn't already a port. IMHO this is out of the scope and too localized for Android - Stackexchange. Maybe if you rephrase the question so that it reads something like: How can I find out if Android runs on my ARM tablet?

try to find out if some other linux runs on it if so you could use the kernel precompiled kernel

this one cold also be helpfull http://www.androidonhtc.com/wiki/Installing_Android


text:
How can I share the internet connection of my HTC Wildfire ( Android 2.2 ) via  Bluetooth or USB?
I have HTC Wildfire and has Android 2.2 installed on it.
I have internet (GPRS,3G) on mobile. I want to share to my computer as windows XP.
Tried to figure out it first on other questions but didn't found the answer.
How could I share mobiles internet on XP PC ? (Please PC doesn't have wi-fi as its PC. May be some way to share via bluetooth OR USB)
Thanks,

Or you may suggest it via USB

For USB teathering i know only two options that (in my experience) works well:
AziLink - The hard but free way
EasyTeather - The easy but non-free way


text:
VW car bluetooth - Android 2.3.6 (Nexus S) phonebook display
I have had great success using my Android Nexus S 2.3.6 with my new 2012 VW GLI Autobahn with RCD-510 stereo, which has bluetooth integration for A2DP audio thru the stereo and phone, as well as the built in speakerphone of course.  I'm very happy with how well it's worked except for one problem.
The display of the phonebook via the car's MFD (multifunction display, between the speed and tach gauges), shows all my contacts EXCEPT those on my favorites, like my wife, best friend, mom, brother, i.e., the people I call most often.  I can usually find them thru recent calls, but it seems silly that those don't show up in the phonebook when people I haven't talked with for years show up by virtue of not being favorites.
Anything I can do to help the phone show the favorites to the car as part of the phonebook?  I have done phonebook update a couple times, but no luck so far.
Thanks!!

For some reason this just worked itself out.  One day I did "update phonebook" in the bluetooth menu, and then everyone showed up.  Before that, I thought I was going to have to remove my wife, brother, mom, etc, from favorites to get them to show up in the car's bluetooth menu.
So, if this happens to you, try "update phonebook" in your VW/Audi bluetooth menu.


text:
Webpage not loading in the Android browser
I was checking out my website using the default Android (2.3.4) browser and the link to one of my PDFs is not loading and returns a "Web page not available" error.  The URL http://www.ericperrets.info/Resume%20-%20Eric%20Perret.pdf .  When I try it in Chrome or any other browsers on the desktop it load correctly.  Any ideas why this is happening?

Looks like a similar issue has been raised in the Google code repository for android at: http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=3678
I've just tested this with a few browsers on Gingerbread - namely Firefox, Dolphin HD and the native browser. Neither of them like to navigate to the file directly, but accessing the file through search results (e.g. Google) seem to prompt the browser to download the file.
It may be worth cross-checking the configuration for the PDF mime-type on your web server. The standard MIME type is application/pdf.

For better compatibility you might consider removing the spaces in the filename. Other than that I don't know what the problem could be.

That would be the first thing I'd check. In my experience spaces, escaped or not, are inconsistently managed across browsers and OSes.


text:
Will I damage my Android device by charging it using a generic microusb + car adapter?
I need a second charger and a car charger for my Evo 3D and the same for my wife's Nexus S, but I don't want to pay exorbitant prices for them.  Will I fry or otherwise damage the devices using something like this couple with a cheap microUSB to USB cable priced about the same?  Will the devices complain about using "unapproved" chargers and refuse to charge like some iPhone models do with some 3rd party chargers?

USB, mini-USB, and micro-USB cables are standardized, the voltage and amperage are the same across all standard compliant USB chargers. As long as the charger is a standard, generic micro-USB charger then it should be alright.
That doesn't make it impossible for a manufacturer to create a non-standard plug that looks like a USB plug, but they're pretty much screwed up if they do so.

Looks like I just saved myself $60 then vs. buying "official" stuff.  Thanks a lot!

Some very cheap car chargers do not do well while the engine is starting (cranking), especially in old cars. That's generally only a concern on crank, though.

Micro-USB is standard size and pinout, so it will provide the power on the right pins no matter what charger that you plug into the device.  Usually any charger that has the Micro-USB plug will work.
Additionally, in most modern batteries, there are a lot of charging safeties inside the device itself, including overvolting, undervolting, charging too quickly, charging when the battery is too hot or too cold, and reverse polarity.  I would be surprised if it would be possible to buy a charger on the market today which would ruin a phone.

No it won't cause any damage. Any generic charger will do. I use a generic car charger like that all the time.

Whilst it won't cause an issue, I've noticed with my HTC Desire that non-official chargers are seen as "USB" chargers by my phone whereas the official chargers are seen to be "AC" types. This is significant because my phone will only draw 500mA in USB charger mode, but will happily pull 1A+ in AC mode.
It's all down to the USB Battery Charging Specification, which specifies that if the D+ and D- pins are shorted with a resistance of at most 200 Ω, additional current can be delivered. The short disables data transfer, but allows devices to detect the Dedicated Charging Port and allows very simple, high current chargers to be manufactured. The increased current (faster, 9 W charging) happens if both the host/hub and devices implement the new charging specification.


text:
How to a flash the rom.zip file to my Android phone?
I extracted the rom.zip from the HTC RUU installation and I want to flash it to my phone.
In case it matters, it is an HTC Desire HD, rooted with Cyanomod and ClockMod Recovery on it.
All I want is to flash the original stock firmware back to the phone. Because the phone has now a different firmware RUU will not recognise it.
What I need to do?
PS. I tried to rename the file to PB32IMG.zip and use the update from zip option but it doesn't work.

PS. I tried to rename the file to PB32IMG.zip and use the update from zip option but it doesn't work.

How does it not work? Please provide details.

The general procedure for installing a new ROM would be:

Download ROM .zip file to SD card.
Back up current ROM in case new ROM does not work:

Boot to Recovery Mode (hold down the Power and Volume Down (Vol -) keys at the same time under boot)
Select 'backup and restore'
Select 'Backup' and confirm
wait for process to finish and go back to Recovery main screen

Wipe and factory reset (this is important for stability! Especially when installing a different ROM, and not just an update. With an update you can usually skip factory reset):

Select “wipe data/factory reset” and confirm
Select “advanced” then “wipe dalvik cache” and confirm
wait for process to finish and go back to Recovery main screen

Install ROM.

Select “install ZIP from SD Card“
Select “choose zip from sdcard“
Select the .zip file you downloaded to the SD card in step 1.
Wait for process to finish, go back to Recovery main screen and select Reboot.

Where in the above process do you get stuck?


text:
Delayed incoming GTalk messages
Recently, I performed a factory reset on my SGS (Froyo), since then all my incoming GTalk messages are seen arriving one hour before: if it is 5pm, the message is tagged 4PM.
Well, I could live with that, but the problem is that my responses are tagged with the right time, therefore any further incoming messages will be placed vertically before my messages.
I have tried changing the time, change time zones, accept network-provided time, and nothing seems to work...
Had this happened to you?How can I solve this problem?
Thanks

Sounds like an issue with Summer Time vs Daylight Savings Time? Most parts of the world are still running on Summer Time right now, which is generally +1 to your actual time zone.

That was it! I did something I haven't tried before: increase the time zone by +1 and manually decrease the phone time by one hour. Spot on! If you care to answer, I'll accept it. Thank you!

This sounds like an issue with Summer Time vs Daylight Savings Time? Most parts of the world are still running on Summer Time right now, which is generally +1 hour to your actual time zone.
As well as checking your phone's time zone, check to see if you have the correct settings for summer time/daylight savings set.

Try to delete the gtalk application data:
Settings -> Application -> Application Settings
choose the gtalk app and press delete data.

Thanks for answering, but it didn't work! :(


text:
How do I fix my boot-looping Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1?
I have a Google IO Samsung Galaxy Tab that has decided it no longer wants to boot properly. It just constantly goes from the 'SAMSUNG' logo that flashes a couple of times to the stars and lines animation that goes back to the logo. It does the startup sound on the first iteration only.
If I hold the power button while it is doing this, it goes to a screen that just says
====================================
 Entering upload mode...
     Upload_Cause:  undefined
====================================

and hangs there. Holding the power button again will take it back to the boot loop. In order to get it to actually power down properly I need to just wait for it to run out of battery.
I assume I'll have to stomp the firmware or something, but I'm not sure how to actually go about it. My computer is a Mac, so instructions that work there would be good, but if necessary I should be able to commandeer a Windows machine for a while.
Also the colour rendition became bad leading up to this problem (this is a reasonable approximation of the situation - it is clearly not right, but the image is still identifiable). I'm not after a separate fix for this problem (yet) - if it's still a problem once the bootloop is fixed I'll be back, but I figured it might be a relevant datapoint.
Update:
I've tried to get clockwork recovery on it, by following these instructions, but after actually getting the image file on there (end of section 4), it comes up with the 'Samsung Galaxy Tab' logo with an open padlock image at the bottom, and then goes back into the animation -> 'SAMSUNG' logo loop. Sooo, not that useful...

I had the very same problem with my IO tablet (samsung logo loop, sometimes the upload_cause screen, but never actualy booted). Took me a lot of try/fails before I found a working solution. And this is it: You have to reflash not only the stock rom, but the stock bootloader too. I followed this tutorial and my tablet is working without a hitch! Good luck!
http://rootzwiki.com/topic/2525-guide-wi-fi-flashing-stock-bootloader-to-io-tab/

The odin in the zip file on that page didn't actually work for me, but the other files and steps were all good with a different odin I'd already downloaded

@Cebjyre you should give a link to the zip you used so this helps others with the same problem.

Have you tried a factory reset by fiddling the power and volume buttons?
Reset Galaxy Tab with Hardware Keys
If Android OS is not loading then you can hard reset Galaxy Tab using hardware Keys combination.

Make sure tab is turned off (press and hold the Power button for about 10 seconds to turn it off).
Press and hold the “Volume Up” and “Power” buttons at the same time, when logo appears on the screen release the “Power” button and continue press the “Volume” button
When recovery screen appears use “Volume Up/Down” buttons to navigate and select “wipe data / Factory reset” by pressing the “Home” or “Power” button (Depends on Galaxy Tab model).

(I got this from
http://www.trickyways.com/2010/12/how-to-reset-samsung-galaxy-tab-to-factory-settings/ and have not actually tried it myself.)

Based on the date of the article, I assume this would work with the model before the IO version, but on mine it doesn't actually do anything. Using the 'Volume Down' button instead gets to a screen with a USB icon and an android dude digging as the options, which seem to be related to different ways of getting new firmware onto the device, so now I'm exploring this path (there doesn't seem to be much in the way of Mac love though)

On mine it doesn't actually do anything either.


text:
What's the Android equivalent of /etc/fstab?
Sometimes I really wish they hadn't messed around with Linux so much! I know there's an /etc/fstab in there somewhere, but where?
I'd like to mount some partitions with alternative filesystems (because I don't like FAT32).

Don't think about Android as a heavily modified Linux distribution. Because it's not. The nearly only thing that Android shares with a Linux distribution is the kernel. And even this component is modified. Also other core components, like the libc, differ.
Android has no /etc/fstab
You don't need /etc/fstab to mount an partition. But there is IIRC no mount command either.dev_mount should work (root required). To answer your questions title: All startup system mounting is done with the/etc/vold.fstab helper script.

Guess I'm a wishful maemo user then really. Yeah it's pretty far away from linux I guess. Thanks for the pointer to vold.fstab !

Vold.fstab only has sd card stuff on my nexus one

I realize that this is an old topic, but some of the answers here actually hindered my efforts to learn about fstab and Android because they so strongly imply that the fstab situation in Android is extremely different from other Linux distributions. From what I can tell, it isn't.
However, reading different responses here made me wonder: what fstab-equivalent file or files are on my device?
Stepping back for a moment, noting that "Android has no /etc/fstab" is probably not helpful to the OP since they must have already known this. If this were untrue, their question (asking what the Android equivalent of /etc/fstab is) would not make any sense. On the other hand, we know @Flow was not trying to imply that there was no equivalent on Android, since they mentioned one of them, a "helper script" named /etc/vold.fstab.
All in all, I think the takeaway from @Flow's post is that on some systems, there is a file (possibly a "helper script" - I can't verify that on my phone) called /etc/vold.fstab, and on those systems, this file is the nearest equivalent to /etc/fstab.
Getting back to wondering about my own device, I am going to post my findings here for several reasons, in spite of the age of the OP:

First, I want to document all of the fstab-style files I can find on my phone, a Pixel 2XL.
Second, I want to show people, especially Linux/Android newbies, that it is fairly easy to find these files on your own device ("teach them to fish").
Third, it's helpful for me to write up my findings (bonus: I'll always be able to find it again here on StackExchange!).
Finally, Google is still serving this page up so there's a chance this will help someone other than me.

So let me try to sum up everything I have learned from all of this:
Android, or at least its variants that I have access to, does make use of fstab-style files. However, the exact name, location, and function of these files vary by distribution - meaning by Android version and device, and also by ROM if you use a custom ROM.
To find these files on your system, open up a terminal emulator like termux or adb shell and run something like this: find / -type f -iname '*fstab*' 2>/dev/null. The redirection of file 2 (stderr) to /dev/null will make your output much cleaner as you will be able to ignore the onslaught of error messages you will get from find, even if you are root.
On my system (a Pixel 2XL, code name "taimen"), I found three candidate files:
taimen:/ # find / -type f -iname '*fstab*' 2>/dev/null

/sbin/.core/mirror/vendor/etc/fstab.taimen
/vendor/etc/fstab.taimen
/data/data/com.android.omadm.service/files/dm/dmt_data/fstab

The first two are separate files in that neither is a hard or symbolic link to the other, but if you diff them you will find that they are identical. Looking a little deeper, if you run stat on the files you will see that they have the same Device and Inode values:
taimen:/ # stat /sbin/.core/mirror/vendor/etc/fstab.taimen /vendor/etc/fstab.taimen

  File: `/sbin/.core/mirror/vendor/etc/fstab.taimen'
  Size: 1326     Blocks: 16      IO Blocks: 512 regular file
Device: fc00h/64512d     Inode: 925      Links: 1
Access: (644/-rw-r--r--)        Uid: (    0/    root)   Gid: (    0/    root)
Access: 2009-01-01 02:00:00.000000000
Modify: 2009-01-01 02:00:00.000000000
Change: 2009-01-01 02:00:00.000000000

  File: `/vendor/etc/fstab.taimen'
  Size: 1326     Blocks: 16      IO Blocks: 512 regular file
Device: fc00h/64512d     Inode: 925      Links: 1
Access: (644/-rw-r--r--)        Uid: (    0/    root)   Gid: (    0/    root)
Access: 2009-01-01 02:00:00.000000000
Modify: 2009-01-01 02:00:00.000000000
Change: 2009-01-01 02:00:00.000000000

stat reports both of these filenames as regular files with only one link each (so no hard or symbolic links are involved). I'm not a filesystem expert but what has happened here is that the same device has been mounted twice. You can see this in the output of the following command, where the only differences between the two lines of output in are the mount points (the part immediately after "on"):
taimen:/ $ mount | grep vendor

/dev/block/dm-0 on /vendor type ext4 (ro,seclabel,relatime,block_validity,delalloc,barrier,user_xattr)
/dev/block/dm-0 on /sbin/.core/mirror/vendor type ext4 (ro,seclabel,relatime,block_validity,delalloc,barrier,user_xattr)

The third file is only visible to me if I login as root, so if you have a device identical to mine, you still will not find, or have access to, this file unless your phone is rooted. That file has to do with a service called Open Mobile Alliance Device Management, but that is a service I know very little about, so I will just mention it here, and you can Google for details about that if you'd like.

Old topic indeed, and since then things have changed quite a bit, to the extent that most devices I've built ROMs for would have a standalone fstab file in either /system/etc or /vendor/etc. Thanks for bringing in fresh info.

This is useful, however it appears to be useless because dm-0 cannot be remounted R/W in order to edit the fstab, and the only solution I found requires that you have a debug build, which is another rabiit hole I'm not going down.

Thanks for the comment, @Michael. I was just trying to give some background on how to find such files and scripts, which, while only part of the OP's problem, was the only question the OP asked.

@chris fair enough

The fstab file is in /.
It's called /fstab.$systemname.rc where $systemname is based on the handset's fingerprint property, either identified as category of chipset or handset itself.

That is dependant and varies from ROM to ROM. In AOSP its /etc/vold.fstab. :)

and while it's true for CM10 -- I have /fstab.p1c -- it gets overwritten on reboot by something I haven't yet figured out.

According to https://source.android.com/devices/storage/config.html, in Android 4.2.2 and earlier it's vold.fstab, and in 4.3 and later it's /fstab.<device>.

on my Moto E, this file is on read only mounted file system :(

You can remount your external storage to be executable by running
mount -o remount, rw /mnt/sdcard

this will remove the noexec, nosuid and nodev flags, but it will still be vfat fs. You can  make links to this fs but not from within. The remount does not survive a reboot, because the vold.fstab file will be read and they will be remounted at reboot with the noexec flags.
If you reformat any of your external storage to anything other than vfat, then they will not be remounted at reboot, and any apps that you have moved to any external storage will not be usable. If you don't intend to use external storage for apps then you can unmount your external storage and use busybox mke2fs DEVICE to make it ext2. Use busybox newfs_msdos DEVICE to return it to vfat and make it usable again.
Note busybox mkfs.vfat is broken, you will get something like

lseek: Value too large for defined data type

so don't waste your time. All of this assumes you are rooted, and have a working busybox binary.

I'm seeing conflicting information.  One resource says it's hardcoded, so not something you can change user-side:

Android-specific init programs are found in device/system/init. Add LOG messages to help you debug potential problems with the LOG macro defined in device/system/init/init.c.
The init program directly mounts all filesystems and devices using either hard-coded file names or device names generated by probing the sysfs filesystem (thereby eliminating the need for a /etc/fstab file in Android).

Elsewhere /etc/vold.fstab and /etc/vold.conf are mentioned.  I have them on my device under CM 7.1 but I'm not sure of how they are used.

It kind of is hardcoded, but it kind of isn't. There's an init.rc file that lives in your ramdisk, so you can pull your boot.img, extract your ramdisk, and then modify the init.rc and repack it again (briefly discussed here, and Tiamat's source is a good example of setting mountpoints in init.rc)

all_licenses: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/


text:
Clearing the search history in the official Twitter app?
Is there an easier way to clear your Twitter app's search history aside from removing your Twitter account and re-adding it or deleting the application's data under Settings > Applications > Manage Applications > Twitter?
This functionality does not appear to exist in the official Twitter for Android app.


text:
How to start a Google+ Hangout from android/mobile phone?
So Google just released a new version of the Google+ app that has Hangout support. But how do I start a Hangout on my mobile phone?

It's a bummer but currently you can't. You can only join a hangout from the phone. From the Google+ help:
On Hangouts for mobile, you have the ability to:

Join a hangout

You can't currently:

Start a hangout
Invite people to join a hangout

(The January 2012 update of the Google+ app changed this, however.)

That is actually not true.  As of yesterday you can.  Here are the instructions.
Make sure you have updated to the newest version of the G+ app. You should have version 2.3.1.242969 that came out yesterday.
From there you need to go to messenger and find the person you want to hangout with and send them a message. Once you send them a message you will see a hangout icon appear in the top right corner. See here for more information.

Great that they have now added this. I'll try to remove my answer.

But when I start a hangout on my phone, how do I access it from a desktop web browser? http://webapps.stackexchange.com/questions/24032/access-old-google-hangout-from-web-browser


text:
Micro USB cables that only charge but no data, no mounting etc (Samsung Galaxy S)
Not all cables seem to be created equal but I've never got to the bottom of why so many (cheap) cables I try only charge - no data. Anyone know why? Certain pins not connecting?
I do know that longer cables or car to usb converters fail to transmit enough power for the phone to register and not charging but I'm getting the opposite. I don't think I am alone (same problem for Nexus One users here)

Others say any cable is good for charging but no mention of data: http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/9464/alternate-usb-data-cable-for-charging

Related: http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/4494/are-android-chargers-universal-in-terms-of-power-voltage-amperage

Broadly speaking, if you have a "USB" cable that only connects pins 1 & 4 then you will get power and no data (Best Buy was selling cables like that as Universal USB Charging Cables a while back, not sure if they still do). Likewise, if you have a cable with only 2 & 3, you will get data but no power. If you're curious, here's a Wikipedia page with the standard USB Pinout.
Note: Micro uses the same pinout as USB A.

Thanks. I checked those pins and they were good. Seems like my phone had dirty 2 & 3 connections and after a lot of wiggling about the cheaper cables seem to work most of time where previously they never worked.

As devnul3 says, a power-only cable is a USB cable where the data pins are not connected.  The main reason they exist is because they can be made ever so slightly cheaper by virtue of only needing 2 connections instead of 4 (and also because you don't need to worry about preserving the quality of the very high frequency signals on the data lines).
This said, there are cases where a power-only cable is preferable to a "fully featured" USB cable: when you want to charge your device from some random USB connector somewhere.  As is becoming more widely known, a USB connector can be used for many things besides the ones the user expects, so if you use a "normal" USB cable, you may end up unwittingly providing priviledged access to your device.
IOW when you're charging from a USB connector that you have no reason to trust, a power-only cable is not only ever-so-slightly cheaper, but it's also a bit safer.

Sorry to disagree with the other answers, but those assumptions are simply wrong:

To be compliant with Battery Charging Spec. or any other comparable charging mechanism, the data lines require certain voltages or a shortcut (e.g. BC with <200 Ohms) to identify the charger type, i.e. the charger provides that signals - hence the data lines are required for the attached device to identify the charger.
Even if only data shall be transmitted, at least data lines and GND are required (see USB 2.0 Spec. Figure 7-19). Hence, is no good reason to keep the VCC line disconnected.
If the cable-connectors have the USB logo on them those cables HAVE to be compliant with USB standard, which in turn means that all pins have to be connected.

Interesting. Charging has changed since this question was asked so it seems faulty/fraudulent cables will fail to negotiate a higher current and take much longer to charge or not charge at all depending on the devices


text:
How can I recover the files in LOST.DIR on my SD card, and what are they?
I've always had a LOST.DIR folder on my external SD card, which until now has been empty.  Today my phone complained that my SD card was damaged and wouldn't mount it, so I pulled it out and looked at it on my computer.  There's now a 70237 file inside LOST.DIR which is 128 MB.  It starts with something like "ë<MSWIN4.1", seemingly to indicate that it's a dump of a Windows 98 FAT boot sector (which makes no sense).
What did Android dump here and and why?  (I think I may have disconnected my phone from my PC yesterday without ejecting the drives first, so that might be the "why", though it was from Windows XP and not Windows 98.)  Is there a simple way to recover the information in this file?

do you have OSX?

@Sathya Nope, just Windows.

According to this Super User answer, LOST.DIR is the folder  mac disk repair looks for as part of it's repair process.

LOST.DIR is something mac disk repair looks for and will ask about as part of it's repair process. If it's related at all to the standard lost+found, then it's a special file that holds all the corrupted or orphaned files found during a file system check.
Something is checking your drive and finding a problem it wants to make note of in LOST.DIR. I think this sort of thing is more likely to happen with Macs on non-HFS drives.

Android also creates this directory as part of it's filesystem check and puts files there which Android believes are corrupt.

Any ideas about recovery?  It seems to be a mix of stuff and not a single file.

@MatthewRead you mentioned there was a single file? Do you have any files on your phone that you think are missing? From what I know, there's isn't a single automated way to recover them. Perhaps you can usefile to check for what type of file it is

I haven't noticed anything missing, but then I haven't used my phone much since I noticed this. It's not an executable but file seems like it would be handy elsewhere.

@MatthewRead The Windows port is a bit crippled, the Linux version is pretty powerful


text:
How to force load desktop version of website (changing user-agent doesn't work)?
Some webpages forces mobile version even I change user-agent.
I changed user-agent in built-in browser and "Dolphin Browser HD",
I am checking it on page www.user-agent-string.info
Main problem is engadget.com, always in mobile version.
I tried to clean cookies, restart browsers etc.
This is my results:

in built-in browser, user-agent - "desktop"

(allegro.pl) doesn't work, redirects to mobile version

in "Dolphin Browser HD", user-agent - "desktop"

(NSFW: redtube.com) doesn't work, redirects to mobile version
(allegro.pl) works fine

in "Dolphin Browser HD", user-agent - "IPad"

(engadget.com) doesn't work, redirects to mobile version
(allegro.pl) works fine
(NSFW: redtube.com) works fine

in "Dolphin Browser HD", user-agent - "custom": Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.0; rv:7.0.1) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/7.0.1

(engadget.com]) doesn't work, redirects to mobile version
(NSFW: redtube.com) doesn't work, redirects to mobile version
(allegro.pl) works fine

Maybe this pages using "adobe flash" user-agent detection ?
(I'am using Asus Transformer TF101, Android 3.2.1, Adobe Flash Player 11)

I've had some problems with the default browser getting redirected to mobile sites as well, e.g., teambuy.ca.  I would also agree they're using something besides the user agent to determine the redirection.

Please find an example site, other than redTube, to use!!

I'd send some fire towards Engadget - if they don't allow you to escape the mobile version, then it's their fault.

Have you done all the latest OS updates?
ASUS has released a couple updates in the recent weeks one of which is supposed to address this exact issue.

This might have nothing to do with the UserAgent – but rather use other means of responsive design. Take my Android site for example: I don't evaluate the UA at all. Try the site with your mobile device, play with UA and Cookies all you want – unless you change your screen resolution, results will always be the same.
@media (max-width: 600px) {
  // adjustments for small screens go here
}

That's a snippet from my site's style sheets. You see, as soon as screen width (that's not the physical width of the screen, but the width of the browser window) drops below 600px, special CSS will be applied: to keep the content readable and focused, for example the tabs go from the left to the top (or bottom, depending on how the browser interprets the CSS), and several other things.
Which means: For such sites, the only way to "force the desktop variant" would be to play with screen density – which requires root and might have some unwanted side-effects (set the density too high, and you cannot read anything anymore as the fonts get too small, just to name a rather harmless example).

There is an alternative here, albeit specific and restrictive,  but it works well on Firefox for Android without root. See Web browser - how to pass true native resolution to prevent sites from serving up mobile responsive design

Some IP blocks or other header information can be used to identify requests as coming from phone carriers.  In an attempt to over engineer the user experience, some web designers could to extreme lengths (such as using this info instead of the user agent) to force what they consider the optimal experience to be on the user.
You can get around this by using WiFi instead of your mobile data plan, but I suspect that's not the answer you're looking for.  Other than that, there is zip I know of that you can do about it except complain to the website operators.
For what it's worth, some sites have a link in the header or footer to allow mobile users to view the standard page (like Facebook), but that's the exception rather than the rule.

Using Wi-Fi instead has never helped me, so I would assume most sites are using another detection method.

Depends on whether you have your user agent blocked, I suppose.  Mine's blocked.

Note:

This answer is meant to address the bounty's note (bounty offered by Abhishek Anand) only, hence, may not be much relevant to the original-cum-historical question.
Bounty note

There must be a better way to [do] this. If a web server disregards user-agent value and looks at screen size, there must be a way to fake screen size too.

As of now, this answer is relevant only to users of Firefox Browser for Android.

Izzy's answer explains us that the issue is most likely the responsive design of the website, a design which can disregard the user-agent and ultimately, the choice of the user too.
The responsive design adjusts  the UI of the website based on the dimension of the browser's window. That is, on desktop, if you open www.cs.princeton.edu/research/areas or android.izzysoft.de/articles.php (both website uses responsive design) in a new window and adjusts the size of the window using mouse or shortcuts, you will witness the transition of the design from Desktop-to-Tablet-to-Mobile.
This behavior implies that the website considers the dimensions of the browser window to be the true dimension of the screen.
In Firefox, the remedy from this behavior is to change the value of the key layout.css.devPixelsPerPx. You can do so by typing about:config in the URL bar followed by searching layout.css.devPixelsPerPx. The default would be set to -1.0. Double tap on the value to edit it.
Per Arch wiki's Firefox Tweaks and this answer by jscher2000 on Mozilla Support , changing the value to 1.0 would be equivalent to having a screen of 96 DPI (your POV may differ), a DPI often found in monitors. Tweak the value to 1.0 or 2.0 or even from a range of -1.0 to 1.0. Be very cautious when using a value to less than 1.0 on fullHD or ultraHD smartphones since the font size may become illegible.
I found 1.0 for my 5.5" fullHD decice and 0.4 for my 5.0" non-HD device the best values for Desktop mode.
Example screenshots:

First image: default value to -1.0
Second image: value to 1.0 for my fullHD device
Third image: value to 0.4 for my non-HD device

(Click image to enlarge)

Drawbacks

The effect of the tweak is universal, hence, every site would show up in Desktop layout or the layout you chose to, until you revert the value to -1.0.
Some websites may rely on the user-agent too, hence changes in both may be required.

Ease for rooted devices
If you constantly need to access some particular websites with responsive design, but only in Desktop mode, to-and-fro to about:config can be pretty much tiresome.
In that case, you can use these flexible commands:
(Requires BusyBox installed)

Change the layout to Desktop
am force-stop org.mozilla.firefox; sleep 1; sed -i '$auser_pref("layout.css.devPixelsPerPx", "1.0");' /data/data/org.mozilla.firefox/files/mozilla/*.default/prefs.js; monkey -p org.mozilla.firefox 1
Here:

am: activity manager; is force-stopping the Firefox, otherwise, the changes wouldn't take effect
sleep: wait for n seconds before further execution; needed for some old and slow devices, like mine
sed: a stream editor; is adding the configuration that would set the layout to Desktop. 1.0 should be replaced by the value you ended up in last section.
Note that mentioning /data/data/org.mozilla.firefox/files/mozilla/*.default/prefs.js will cause the changes to take place in every Firefox profile. To make the command profile specific, replace *.default with the name of the profile directory.
monkey: while meant for stress testing an app, it is helping us to launch the launcher activity of Firefox

Back to default mobile layout
am force-stop org.mozilla.firefox; sleep 1;  sed -i '/.*layout.css.devPixelsPerPx.*/d' /data/data/org.mozilla.firefox/files/mozilla/*.default/prefs.js; monkey -p org.mozilla.firefox 1
We're simply deleting the line having the layout configuration.

Real world usage
How you would practically use the two commands from last section  is completely up to you.
I can recommend:

LMT Launcher. It has the option to assign a script to a Pie (see example). Under the script you can copy-paste the whole command. It can also assign an app shortcut to a Pie, so you can use it with Tasker or MacroDroid or Secure Settings. The latter apps can execute your commands.
GMD GestureControl. Use gestures to control the device, or for our case, execute our commands. For basic details and usage, see my answer here and here. You would need a third-party app like Tasker or Secure Settings for the command execution part.
All in one Gestures. This app can also control the device using gestures. Alike the last app, third-party support is required for command execution. If needed, see my answer for very basic info.
GravityBox. A magical box perhaps. You can use it to show a Pie which would execute your command on tap, or add a custom tile in the Quick Settings bar (see example). For usage, see the first section of my answer here.
Overlays - Float Everywhere. Reminds me of this example (Image source) where you can add stuff into a global, hidden but on-request available, sidebar. Again, you would need a third-part app to execute your commands. For usage, see the official website or my answer here.

Note:

The second section of this answer has its roots in the answer by g491 on Web browser - how to pass true native resolution to prevent sites from serving up mobile responsive design.
The website in screenshots and the app recommendations are used for demonstration purposes only. The poster is not affiliated to anything.
For Chrome for Android users: It maybe possible to scale the website using command-line flags. I had no success, nevertheless, you may try to make good use of these sources:

Arch wiki - HiDPI
Setting Flags for Chrome on Android
List of Chromium Command Line Switches
Run Google Chrome with flags (not from chrome://flags)

I'm using Dolphin For Pad, and it loads the desktop version of Engadget with the default settings. Won't try RedTube since it's NSFW. Give it a try! :)

Some sites may be swapping CSS based on screen size. There's not too many PCs out there running at phone resolutions. Disabling Javascript might work around that along with a useragent change.

If it's really CSS-based, JavaScript got nothing to do with this.

I had the same issue with watching full episodes of daily show on my android. Turns out I visited the site as mobile first and had to clear my cache and put it in desktop mode first.

Check out the answer at Web browser - how to pass true native resolution to prevent sites from serving up mobile responsive design
It requires using a specific browser, but at least it's a big name one like Firefox.


text:
Why doesn't my phone support Google + hangouts?
I have Motorola xt502 phone which is a Commtiva z71 variant, running android 2.3.7 CM7.1.
I was wondering what is limiting the hangout feature on my phone.
Is it because it has arm v6 cpu, the missing front facing camera or memory constraints? GTalk video is also not available on my phone.
Any info? Thanks.

What do you mean by doesn't support? You can not start a hangout from mobile you can only join: http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/14546/how-to-start-a-google-hangout-from-android-mobile-phone

@flow ya i cant join even.

What message do you get when you try to join?

Most likely it's the lack of front camera for both G+ Hangouts and GTalk w/video.

As Chahk mentioned: It's the lack of a front facing camera.
But there are ways to fake a front facing camera, so that you can join hangouts.


text:
Are alternative, mostly Asian, Android Markets safe and fair?
I'm getting mailing from various alternative Android markets, mostly from Asian regions (last one from Ndoo Networks), offering hosting of my free Android app.
Although broader reach for my app would be certainly better, I still have some questions:

Are these Markets safe?
They are getting access to some my credentials, they can distribute something on behalf of my name, like virus, or spam, etc.
Would it be fair for Google to host apps there?
I mean Amazon is ok, that's fair competition, but I'm afraid these "noname" alternative markets are somehow using unfair benefit of the work of other

Does anyone have any good or bad experience with these markets?

Are these Markets safe? They are getting access to some my
  credentials, they can distribute something on behalf of my name, like
  virus, or spam, etc.

If they ask for permission to distribute your apps, then they're probably the least to worry about; you can always verify that your apk is being distributed unmodified by verifying the apk's signature with your public key. You can also publish your public key (but keep your private key private) so that people downloading from these alternative markets can verify for themselves that the apk came from you unmodified.

Would it be fair for Google to host apps there? I mean Amazon is ok,
  that's fair competition, but I'm afraid these "noname" alternative
  markets are somehow using unfair benefit of the work of other

It would be just as fair as Amazon; in fact, it would generally be considered unfair monopoly if Google started hunting down these alternative markets. In any case, the Play Market does not provide paid apps in China (and many other countries), so it does not hurt their revenue stream.


text:
Is there a way to read a network log file directly from the Android device using a Linux tail command like?
Is there a way to do what's asked in the topic subject for unrooted and/or rooted phones?
I'd like to read from a system log file instead of constantly listening the network activity for battery saving purposes.

You can use any SSH client to establish a connection to your host and tail the desired file.
This will not help you saving the battery, since the tail command or any other that collects "off-site" information, needs an active connection that uses network, that in turn consumes more battery.

Personally I use ConnectBot by Kenny Root and Jeffrey Sharkey available from Google Play Store for free.

ConnectBot is a powerful open-source Secure Shell (SSH) client. It can manage simultaneous SSH sessions, create secure tunnels, and copy/paste between other applications.
This client allows you to connect to Secure Shell servers that typically run on UNIX-based servers.


text:
My HTC Desire has suddenly become full and is displaying the "Disk Space Low!" Message

Possible Duplicate:
HTC Desire low on internal storage, I'm clueless — Any help?

I have always had a problem with my Desire's phone storage capacity so recently I did a factory re-set and started again.  Everything was fine for a few weeks, I had loads of space and could download and install to my hearts content.  Then all of a sudden I have the dreaded "Disk Space Low!" message again.  Thsi is despite having only 39.116meg of apps installed on the phone. All possiable apps are on the sd card and there is nothing in the cache.  Also all contacts, dates etc are stored on google.
Can someone please explain what is taking up all this space i.e all 139 MB?  I cant even download the latest software update!

Try viewing your disk usage with DiskUsage, it helps visualize the problem.


text:
Why does my phone sometimes reboot when playing music?
My Droid X spontaneously reboots when it's playing music.  I've confirmed this behavior with the native music player, Amazon's MP3 player, and now Spotify (though, with Spotify, it seems to happen less often).
No warning, and no pattern, the phone just goes silent mid-song, then reboots.  Sometimes it does it on consecutive days, sometimes it doesn't do it for a week.
It's perfectly stable at all other times, and has never spontaneously rebooted outside of when I'm playing music.

You don't seem to be the only one having this trouble. See this thread: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1283773

I think its general error with android, my phone that does that now and again, usually the more time it has been playing the more likely it will reboot, however not always.

I finally got a log of my phone doing this. Relevant section: https://gist.github.com/1515675. Anyone know what to make of "W/dalvikvm( 1315): threadid=23: thread exiting with uncaught exception (group=0x40018560)"?

I think it was a memory issue.  I installed Auto Memory Manager, set it on "mild" and never had the problem again.


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Re-run 'matched contacts suggestion'
I have a hTc Evo 3D, with hTc sense. Sense has a great little tool that matches contacts from different accounts, so that all the details for a particular person are linked. i.e. Facebook, Twitter and Phone number are stored together, under a common entry.
Does anyone know how to force this to do a re-run over all my contacts? I ask because I was in a hurry the first time it ran and only accepted a few of it's suggestions and now I want to match up the remaining contacts.
Thanks!

I don't know the exact answer, but you can always manual link contacts, which is a workaround I use,

In Contacts, open one contact, then click the broken clip icon in the top-right corner (I am using Sensation XE).
In the pop up screen, choose all contacts
Search for the one you want to link to and click it

Then the two contact items are linked if you click Finish. You can click Cancel if you don't want them to be linked.


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does it matter what version of Android I have before installing Clockwordmod?
I have a Samsung Galaxy S with recovery 3E.  I want to install Clockworkmod on my phone, but because of the version of recovery I have, I need to flash CWM via Odin.
When I download the CWM recovery image, does it matter what version of Android I have, whether it's Froyo or Gingerbread?

I wonder if someone's made a CWM 7.1 package for Odin yet.  It would simplify things.

No, it doesn't matter at all for recovery.
Just make sure that if the Odin package contains anything beside CWM (e.g., a kernel) that the versions match.  I've used a Voodoo kernel with built in CWM for replacing 3E recovery, and the kernel had to be 2.2 to match my 2.2 OS.
That said, you could actually flash a mismatching kernel with CWM as long as you already had the Cyanogen package on your device and ready to install.  You'd be able to get into recovery and flash the package even if your OS wouldn't boot.

I have 2.3.3 with Hebrew support (the official version by my carrier).  Should it matter which version of Voodoo I flash, if I choose to flash CWM along with Voodoo?

@Nathan As long as it's for 2.3 and for your specific device (e.g. for the i9000 and not the T959 for example) you'll be fine.  Unless you don't care about whether the device boots, in which case you could probably flash a 2.2 Voodoo kernel as noted.

Should this affect the Hebrew support?

@Nathan I'm not sure what languages CM supports.