text:
Recovery Mode Fails on Samsung Galaxy i7500L
I'm trying these steps to root my Samsung Galaxy i7500L.
When I get to step 9, recovery mode, I just see a yellow exclaimation-mark icon over a phone icon. I can reset my phone to OEM settings, but I can't see any menu or enable SU/Root.
I tried copying the rectools.tar.gz to my root folder (I assume this is the folder that opens as a drive when you plug in to your PC via USB and select "open files/folder" -- I think you need Mass Storage mode enabled though). Is that the right place?
Also, even if I reset and then just run straight recovery (without running fastboot to flash first), I see the same screen.
What am I missing?

For some reason you're not successfully replacing the stock recovery (the "yellow exclaimation-mark icon over a phone icon") with the new one they instruct you to download. Step 7 is key:

7) Type fastboot flash recovery recovery.img

This is where they have you 'flash' (copy/format) the modified recovery over the stock recovery. Is this step working for you? Simply copying the 'RECTOOLS.tar.gz' to your device's storage or SD card isn't sufficient.
On a separate note, have you investigated other means of rooting your device besides manually flashing via ADB? My favorite guide is Lifehacker's, and if I read it right you might simply be able to use SuperOneClick.
In any event, as always, tread lightly and read carefully.

Tried SuperOneClick, didn't work. It's not about flashing the new recovery; I cannot boot the stock recover mode, under any circumstance. This is my issue.

@ashes999: Per your question, the screen with the yellow exclaimation-mark icon over a phone icon where you can reset your phone to OEM settings is the stock recovery. Stock recovery won't let you Enable SU/Root, that's a function of a 3rd party recovery that must be flashed in place of your stock recovery.

Really? That's interesting. But then, there's no way out of it without wiping your phone completely. I definitely didn't get step 7 to work, but now I can't afford risking another wipe-out.

@ashes999: Well it's worth noting that flashing a new recovery shouldn't wipe your existing ROM or data, it would only change the recovery partition (a good explanation of the difference is here). Every time you're talking about recovery or rooting, though, you should make backups and be prepared for possible data loss.


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Default browser doesn't play embedded music from a website
Today I came upon a situation where I had a website which had an embedded player in it which plays sample music. To my surprise I came to know that the Android 2.3 default browser or Opera web browser didn't support it. But I was able to play the music on my iPhone. Is there a way I can make it work on my Android, or is there any other software available for this?

Is it Flash? Maybe you need to have Flash installed? Download it from the Market.

but I have adobe flash 10.1 installed already!

How about Adobe Air?

Could you post a link to the resource, assuming it's safe to share?

Website link please?

@geff: Can't be Flash if it works on an iPhone.

Hummmm... its not a HTML5 website is it? I say that since you've stated flash 10.1 is already installed but  stock browser/opera does not work! Have you tried dolphin browser?

Have you tried with other similar websites which play music? It could be an isolated issue due to the way that specific website was developed.

In browswer's setting check if you have made the "plugin load on demand". If so, try "always load".

It is in "always on" state

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


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File from Ubuntu to phone?
I am looking for an app  that works similar to "Chrome to Phone", but for file transfer from a desktop. With a right click on a file you can choose "Send to phone" and an application on your Android phone will see it and receive the file. Does anyone know a solution? And does it work on Ubuntu Desktop? And if it doesn't exist; What is the best alternative to send a file to my phone through the internet and without Bluetooth or a USB cable?

possible duplicate of Quickly send file from phone to PC via internet?

You could also use a browser based remote desktop tool like Airdroid or Remote Web Desktop

An alternative to the Dropbox way of sharing files is Ubuntu One

I use FTP file transfer using FileZilla. Its easy,secure, and offers decent data transfer rates. So you don't need Bluetooth or a USB cable to store and retrieve stuff from your device. There's a software called Software Data Cablethat allows you to transfer data wirelessly from and to your device using FileZilla. Using both of them together is simple. Hope this helps.

I don't know of any shell utilities that will let you just right click and send, but for transferring files to/from my device in general I am a huge fan of Files Anywhere plus it can send/receive faxes from your phone.  You can upload files from your machine via their web interface, then download using the app.  It's a free service, too.  For Ubuntu, you might be able to write a shell script incorporating this and then add it to your right click options.
I reviewed Files Anywhere on my blog some while ago if you want to read more about it.
If you just want to transfer files while on your LAN and you're using wifi, Samba Filesharing works super well.  You can just browse to your phone's SD card like it was a regular network samba share from your desktop.

I use Dropbox for that.

You could use Bluetooth to send it; use your Ubuntu system to do the sending and just make sure that Bluetooth is activated on your phone.
Alternatively, connect your phone to your desktop via USB and change your phone's Connection Type to be Disk Drive and then mount the disk drive on your computer(my Ubuntu system does this automatically). Copy it over using the desktop's interface of your choice. Then when you disconnect your phone, use a file browser like Astro File Manager to open the file.
Alternatively, if you have somewhere to put the file, Astro can get it via either SFTP or SMB. If you have wifi in your house, then you would be able to access it via SMB. There are boxes provided for Server, Share, Domain, Directory, User Name, & Password. Or you could use a data connection, but that would involve both your ISP not blocking the needed ports(mine does), and sending your password in the clear over the open Internet.

OP specifically asked for solutions that don't involve BT or the USB cable

@Logos: I saw that and had started an edit, but could not finish due to time constraints and my schedule. The edit is now posted.

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


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Reset capital letter in SMS
I've noticed that my SMSes don't start anymore with a capital letter, the same happens after punctuation.
Maybe I've accidentally changed some settings? How to solve this?
Thanks in advance

Settings > Language and Keyboard > Samsung keypad > Auto-capitalization.

Auto Capitalization is turned on, but many apps do not do what they're supposed to do. Any suggestions?

I have just had same prob trying to change get auto capitals back in text. I have found when on text input screen by pressing the cog wheel symbol bottom right of screen and you can select various setting, one is for auto capitals. It drove me mad 'til I found it, reckon I must have hit it by accident sometime. Good Luck hope this regains a bit of sanity, cheers.


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Erasing SD Card contents and personal data
I have an SD card in my Droid Global or Droid X, not exactly sure which model. I go to the files and click on the SD card instead of shred files and delete all of its contents. I then go to Privacy and click the Manufacturer Reset and also click the box to erase SD Card. My phone does a hard reset, and it turns back on.
After this process, what is readable on my SD card if someone took it and hooked up to a computer or anything else?  If I hadn't done the reset, would someone be able to see text messages, phone calls, or browsing history if I've deleted them all from my phone?

The other answers are a little misleading.
First, it doesn't really matter from a security standpoint whether you've got things stored on the SD card or on the internal storage.  The SD card is easier to remove and read outside the phone, but the internal storage can be read as well (most easily from the device itself but also from a PC).
The second thing is that I would expect this wipe to be insecure, i.e., file deletion rather than zeroing of the storage.  (I haven't checked myself.)  I recommend using a program like Eraser to zero your SD card.  I don't have a good recommendation for the device storage, unfortunately.

So if I know how to flash ROMs, can I safely connect device to computer and format both its internal and external SDs?  Edit: just found it. You rock!

Is this indeed the answer? If I format both SDs will I be able to go into download mode and flash ROMs with Odin?

@Shimmy Thanks :).  You don't need to format anything to get into Download Mode and use Odin.

What happens if I do? Device bricked? Is that a possibility?

@Shimmy If you format your bootloader then you can brick the device, but otherwise -- as long as Download Mode & Odin are working normally -- you cannot brick it.  Formatting the storage partitions won't affect your bootloader.

So explain me how it works, I have a Galaxy Player that's got an external SD, are there actually 3 disks? two SD and another hidden one? Can I delete the bootloader if I format the two SDs visible as mass storage when connected to my PC?

@Shimmy All internal storage should be one contiguous bit of flash memory, partitioned up into the main Android system storage, your "internal SD card" (badly named), and things like recovery and bootloader.  So counting your external SD it's only two storage devices.  Only the internal SD data partition of the main storage will be made available to your PC operating system, so wiping it from there should work very well without harming your bootloader in any way.

Well said Matthew.

When you do a hard reset, or a Factory Default Reset, it wipes your Phones INTERNAL storage completely. So anything that was saved on your phones internal storage, is pretty much gone.
Personal things such as : Texts, Phone Calls, and Browsing History, are not stored on your SD Card, but stored Internally. So doing that wipe will have cleared it out.
So you're fine. Your SD Card never really holds anything personal like that.

So if I know how to flash ROMs, can I safely connect device to computer and format both its internal and external SDs?

Oops, just found it. You rock!

Open the sdcard on your pc and format it. done. it's not recoverable whatsoever because it's a flash disk.
to wipe all personal data you need to do a factory reset.
or wipe /data (and /cache) manually

Before deleting anything you should encrypt your sdcard and your internal storage (this appears to be built into android but located in different places on different devices, or maybe it's different versions). Do this first because depending on how the encryption works there may be gaps left unencrypted because it didn't think it needed to overwrite deleted space. you could try to fill that space before erasing for total security.
Once encryption is done, you can then erase your sdcard (again, should be built in, though Eraser Mentioned in Mathew's answer might be better, don't know ), and do the factory reset on your phone. This way any data bits will be extremely difficult to recover (near impossible depending on password chosen), even with specialized hardware.

Nothing at all is on your memory card. SMS messages etc aren't actually stored on the SD card. When you do a hard reset all of your data is erased completely.


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Secure keyboard application from android market
Is it safe to install a keyboard application from android market that asks full internet access permission? Will it not lead to certain security risks?
There are several free and paid keyboards that are very popular with millions of downloads. Some of them asks that permission while others do not. What is the difference?

It's definitely a valid concern and you should be wary of apps that can record keystrokes with "Full Internet" privileges.
It's best to reach out to the developer of such keyboard app and ask them this question directly.  I imagine such a permission would be required for something benign, like downloading language packs (from within the keyboard app) or showing ads, for example.

I see, normally that permission is not required, e.g. standard keyboard on Sony Tablet S. It is not possible to predict whether keystroke activity is logged and sent unless you have source code of the application


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Force GPU rendering in ICS. How does this affect system performance?
I thankfully discovered the option to force GPU rendering of apps in the system settings of ICS.
So far, I did only notice a difference with one app: Twitter for Android was very annoying to use before, since the fps were very low. Now it's almost perfectly smooth.
I've heard that the RAM usage is higher with GPU rendering activated.

How much is the difference?
What other effects does GPU rendering have on the performance of ICS?

The builtin News & Weather app will crash when you tap the forecast in order to see the graph.

Yeah, I know. But I need to activate this option because Twitter for Android is really horrible without forced GPU rendering.

This post will explain everything. It details how GPU rendering works in ICS.
https://plus.google.com/105051985738280261832/posts/2FXDCz8x93s
Though, if you want a short answer:
GPU rendering essentially forces the drawing of windows and UI elements in apps to be calculated and done using the GPU of your phone instead of the CPU. This frees up clock cycles for the CPU to do other tasks enabling your phone to be generally smoother and faster. However, this means that everything being done by the GPU eats more RAM (as its using OpenGL to do it which requires more overhead). Android has always done some aspects with the GPU using hardware acceleration. What I have described is a MAJOR OVERSIMPLIFICATION. Its not so cut and dry. Please read the link above in its entirety for a full understanding of the concept.


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Why GPS tags are lost after saving images to PC with KIES?
I'm using Samsung Galaxy S and latest Kies downloaded from samsung site. When I save images to PC all GPS tags are elliminated. How to keep them intact?

Copy the files directly by mounting your device storage to the PC, don't use Kies.  See GAThrawn's comment for details (thanks!).

Note that you may need  to change your phone's connection settings under "Settings", "Wireless and Network", "USB Settings" and set it to "Mass Storage" mode to do this. It will then work just like a normal digital camera or USB stick when you plug it into your PC, you should be able to find your photos in a "DCIM\Camera" folder.

I did that, there are no GPS tags in the images even I right click them to view the properties directly from the phone connected as USB storage. Do they keep GPS tags apart from the images and show them in phone gallery only?

@ChesnokovYuriy It's possible ... I don't know why they'd do that :/

it is possible to check by renaming the image in the phone or making its copy


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KiesPDLR has stopped working
Why after recent Kies update to Ver.2.1.1.11124_17 I get this message?
Though Kies continues to run it is no longer possible to update firmware.

I'm having the same problem with Kies v2.3. If you've found a solution since then, I'd be interested to hear it.

You should uninstall Microsoft .NET 4

Why? Without information about how this will help this is not a good answer.


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Galaxy S2 not recognized by computer
When I try to connect my Galaxy S2 device to my computer via USB, I get an error saying that the device has malfunctioned and is unrecognized. It appears as "Unknown device" in device manager.
I'm using Windows 7.

I tried this from my Samsung Galaxy Ace Plus and it worked:

From your mobile, click MENU > SETTINGS > APPLICATIONS > DEVELOPMENT
UNTICK USB debugging, Stay Awake, Allow mock locations
Insert USB cable from mobile to PC/laptop > "Enable USB debugging" > OK
Drag down the the USB icon from the upper left part of the screen
Tap on "Connect USB" > "Connect to USB storage"
Then, automatically, your PC/laptop will now detect new mobile/sd device
From the laptop/PC, select "Open folder to view files"
There, you'll see MEMORY CARD storage and MOBILE storage as "Removable Disk..." (mine is G)
You should now be able to transfer files from PC>mobile and vice versa.

In addition to what the others have already answered, if you just want to access the files on the phone's storage and SD card, you can just mount the file system.
Unplug the USB cable, then Settings > Wireless and network > USB utilities > Connect storage to PC

try to key in this in dialer
*#7284#
it has 4 option there..
UART
MODEM
PDA
USB
MODEM
PDA
For usb. select the PDA.if it already selected to PDA. reselect it by select MODEM and then PDA again.. Only change the USB setting.. andthen press back. try reconnect to kies again..
hope it helps..

This problem might be because you dont have the  neceasary drivers. Make sure you have the USB debugging mode ON for your device. Then use Samsung Kies, a software like itunes, to detect your device.

Downloaded these drivers: http://www.mediafire.com/?8jq83u3xs6w8jou and enabled debugging mode and still no go

You don't need to download those drivers. Just download Samsung Kies. It has the inbuilt drivers necessary to detect your phone.

I reinstalled Kies twice and my phone still doesn't get recognized at all. Kies doesn't even know that it's plugged in, and I'm getting the same unrecognized device problem.

As far as i know, there are two more things you can do. One is to check whether the USB mode is set to Samsung Kies when you connect your device to the PC. Only then, Kies will detect your device. If you have already tried this, the last option is to take your phone to a service center and have them check it for you.

Yes, I have tried that. So I took my phone to a service center, and now all I have left to do is wait.

Hmmm. Do let me know what happens next.

Are you sure that USB Debugging mode is on?
Under Settings > Applications > Development you should see an option for USB Debugging -- if that isn't checked you won't be able to mount your phone.

Tried that already.

Hey you can try to solve this in two ways either you can download Samsung Kies and using that you can connect your phone , or if not by that way then u can check in your phone that is your USB Debugging On its in settings Option > Application > Development see that is it checked or not, if its checked then it means its on..
You Can also Download PDA NET and install in your PC thats also one of the way if you dont want to install Samsung Kies

I've had the same problem. I was so annoyed that I did a factory reset. It clears all your data, but it also solved my issue.

without any troubleshooting first?

When windows sees it as "the device has malfunctioned" it is a different issue than when it says "drivers were not installed, your device may not work properly. "  If it says "malfunction" it is a problem with the usb hardware connections themselves,  albeit the cable end or the device port. Try using some electrical contact cleaner and a soft tooth brush and the clear the port with a compressed air duster can. Just spray a little of the cleaner on the brush and gently clean your port and/or cable. Then spray area just enough to dry with air duster. Worked well for me. If you take it to a service shop they will do it for you for a minimal fee.

I had the same prob as my S3 is not deteced on my MAC , but it is very easy to solve:

Connect your S2 to your PC using a datacable
Now in your phone, go to Settings→More→USB Utilities
Turn on USB mass storage button.

It works.

Isn't it so strange that on some computer config it is not a problem??? In many cases a third party software is the badass ( e.g. firewall, antivirus apps.) Always try on another machine before you go back to the shop:-)

not a very good answer.... re-edit to improve your answer...


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Sync issues Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 on MS Exchange mail account
My MS Echange mail sync won't work properly on my Samsung 10.1 Tab.
It shows two flaws - whatever I try:

INBOX Mail sync is simply not complete.
On Push, Manual or Timed delivery I will nog get all my mail in.
In my INBOX a lot of "empty mails" appear, dated 1-1-1970, the beginning
of computer time. I simply delete them, but since they do not appear in my
corporate email account or on the phone, they must be due to sync errors.

Interesting background input is that I also have a Samsung Galaxy SII Phone, looking at the same mailserver and account and this perfectly gets all email in on the Phone. It looks at the same Exchange sever using the same details in settings. So it obviously can't have anything to do with Exchange, but is has to do something with the Galaxy Tab.
Or am I very wrong?
The tabmodel is GT-P7500, Android 3.2, kernel 2.6.36.3
The phone model is GT-I9100, Android 2.3.4, kernel 2.6.35.7.
Please help - I'm getting no response from Samsung and can't find a clue on the net yet.
Thanx in advance!! Rob.

It maybye does make any sense but firmware update buildnummmer htj85b p7510xwkl1, fixes this problem on Android 3.2. Because we are based in The Netherlands and the original question also originated from here, i think a localization problem????

You must update the firmware of the Galaxy Tab. We had the same problem on a tab with Android 3.2, but not on one with 3.1. After we did the firmware update the problem was fixed.
Dré

Did you get 3.1 and 3.2 backwards here?  Otherwise updating doesn't make much sense.


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Is there a real time wifi traffic analyzer for Android?
I'm using SugarSync to sync files between my phone and my computer, but I'm not sure if things are actually working as they should.
It would be great to watch Android network traffic in real time.
Does anyone know of an app?

There is an app called 3G WatchDog.
It can monitor 3G data transfer and Wi-Fi traffic. A pretty neat application.

Click image for larger version

Isn't really an answer, but...
There is WiFi Analyzer which shows more information on the wireless networks your device can reach. It gives you more detail than the average user would require.
As far as I know, there is no application available on Android (yet?) that can "sniff packets".
Would be an interesting application to have in the pocket.

Cool app.  Thanks for pointing it out.  I use Tomato firmware on my router to do the same thing but Wifi Analyzer will make it much easier.

This isnt true now. If you have root access. There are a variety of Packet sniffing applications and some which even do session and cookie hijacking for you. Facesniff and Droidsheep are 2 prime examples.

You can view, sniff, and save actual network packets, however this requires root access.
Shark for Root app does this.

You don't need root to do this! Android apps can utilize the VpnService API to capture packets without root.
Here are some apps I found that do not require root:

Packet Capture
tPacketCapture

Internet Speed Meter Lite is an app which exactly does it.

I use CoolTool to get current information about my phone. And with this you can monitor traffic data (ascending and descending).
The pro is that it displays as an overlay then you can monitor while using the app. Hope this will be helpful.

Network Log is an app quite simple to use. It shows real time packets in a human-readable way as well as statistics. It takes it directly from iptables, hence you need a rooted device.


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Activating swap at boot with an init.d script?
I have a rom that supports swap, but the swap script is missing.
How would i make that swap script manually?
I.E: What code would be in the file /etc/init.d/07swapon?

How about this?
Open a console, navigate to the android SDK tools folder.
Type "adb mount /system", without the quotes doh!
Type "adb shell".
At the shell copy paste the following commands one by one and press enter after pasting them.
echo "#!/system/bin/sh" > /system/etc/init.d/05userinit
echo "swapon -a" >> /system/etc/init.d/05userinit
echo "/dev/block/mmcblk0p3 swap swap" >> /system/etc/fstab
chmod +x /system/etc/init.d/05userinit
chmod g-w /system/etc/init.d/05userinit
chmod o-w /system/etc/init.d/05userinit
chmod g-w /system/etc/fstab
chmod o-w /system/etc/fstab
exit

Now you are back at the normal command prompt, type "adb reboot".
Device will reboot, when its done open a terminal and type "free".
It should show swap space allocated.

And with some programs in memory you can see swap being used:

adb shell
free
total used free shared buffers
Mem: 407860 399940 7920 0 872
Swap: 249596 16596 233000
Total: 657456 416536 240920

Information from here

hello, i've added a custom file in init.d and it cannot seem to be executed at boot

@Joe Your rom/kernel has to support init.d scripts. Does it?

@TheAndroNerd yeah it does. but the rom, doesn't fix permissions of the scripts, so the built-in scripts in the init.d folder isn't being executed. tried "chmod +x" to everyone of them and it worked. :)


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How to unroot HTC Droid Incredible rooted to Unrevoked?
How can I unroot a Droid Incredible with Unrevoked Forever to CyanogenMod?

You've got to do 2 things:
First, download the S-ON tool from unrevoked's site and run it according to the instructions.  The main thing to keep on top of is the radio compatibility, particularly if you've flashed any of the Evo's radios to your Incredible.
Once you're back to S-ON, flash the latest RUU.  Right now, it's 4.08.605.2.  This will replace the ROM & recovery with stock versions.  Be careful doing this, last I heard there's no way to permanently root the Incredible and regain S-ON after you've flashed a stock Gingerbread ROM.  If you would like to re-root in the future, at least keep S-OFF.


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Using Moto Droid Car Charger with Samsung Galaxy Nexus
I just upgraded my phone from the original Motorola Droid to the Galaxy Nexus. Both phones use the same micro USB port. Is there any reason I cannot use my Droid's car charger with the Nexus?

It turns out that the car charger I bought for my Moto Droid is unable to charge the Galaxy Nexus. It just does...nothing.

It should work fine -- Micro-USB is Micro-USB.  The only possible caveat is the phone and charger may not negotiate high speed charging.  However, that's unlikely.
My wife and I have shared wall and car chargers between her old Droid, current Droid X, and my Incredible without any problems.

I tried using my wife's Droid car charger with my Galaxy Nexus and it did not charge. (The wall/USB charger works, though.)

Thank you for your response. I was primarily concerned with "blowing up" my phone through a mismatch in voltages or something along those lines.

@AlEverett - Did it not work at all, or did it just provide a weak charge? I know the Nexus is seeing an issue where it can't maintain a charge when navigation is running.

USB is standardized 5v, but some devices may want higher amperage, and fail to charge, for example: http://www.macobserver.com/tmo/article/watt_to_know_about_iphone_ipad_power_adapters/

@NoBugs: There's a USB Charging Standard for going over the standard 500mA max load (900mA for USB 3.0), though Apple is still using their own standard.  Pretty much every other modern smartphone should be using the USB Battery Charging Standard though.

It could be an issue with the actual car socket. Ensure that the fuse is intact, and that the socket is working fine.


text:
Where can I find a thorough introduction to Android?
I recently bought an Android product (HOTT MD500), with no English-language manual. I've used Linux for more than 10 years, so I generally have no difficulty adapting to various interface changes, but the conventions used on the Android interface are a bit alien to me:

How to close programs.
How to switch between open programs. Are they even open still?
How to properly shut the device down.
When to use the SD card, when to use the internal flash drive for storage.
What tasks it is capable of doing.
What version it is. How to upgrade. Or should I?
What its limitations are..
What not to do so that I don't break it.

Is there a good manual which provides an introduction to all of this?

Complete Android Guide is a pretty good introduction/starting point for free on the website, available as an ebook or an app on the market.
http://completeandroidguide.com/

Is it still true that the book is free on the website? In that case could you give me a direct link?

http://www.completeguides.net/01_The_Complete_Android_Guide

The links in this answer are no longer valid. You get 404 or equivalent errors when you attempt to visit them.

Google do actually publish Android manuals for each major version, unfortunately they do hide them fairly well.
Your phone's manufacturer and/or your network/carrier may also publish manuals for your phone that will include the major changes they've made from the base Android (for example a lot of manufacturers customize or replace a lot of the Android UI with their own version, such as HTC's Sense, or Samsung's TouchWiz interface, they may also modify/replace default apps to work better with their hardware or interface, the Camera app is often one of these). In your case it sounds like the manufacturer unfortunately probably doesn't have an English language manual, on the plus side they probably haven't done much customization to the base Android experience.
Google's Android manuals:

Android 2.2 (aka Froyo)
Android 2.3 (aka Gingerbread)
Android 3 (aka Honeycomb) tablets only, not available for phones
Android 4.0 (aka Ice Cream Sandwich) actually a Galaxy Nexus manual, but as that device is pretty much pure ICS, it should be OK

Thanks, it should be mentioned that even some localized versions are available, e.g. French, German, etc.

I don't know about a manual (I never found one) but ...

How to close programs.

You don't. I mean, if you want to stop running applications, that's under Settings > Applications but otherwise, you mostly don't.

How to switch between open programs. Are they even open still?

If you long press the "home" key you can move between the last few applications you had open.

How to properly shut the device down.

When you hold the power key for a few seconds, you should get a few different options, depending on your OS version. Powering off is definitely one of those options. That's the best way to shut it down.

What version it is. How to upgrade. Or should I?

Find the OS version under Settings > About phone (should show a Kernel version and a Build number. I'm pretty sure you can't upgrade without rooting it, but there are some good insights on rooting your phone right here (and no one definitive answer, for better or for worse.) How do I root my Android device?

When to use the SD card, when to use the internal flash drive for storage.

That's a good question, one worth asking / looking for answers to here.

What tasks it is capable of doing.

Google does have some good general material on this one.

What its limitations are..

There's no good answer to that one, unfortunately.

What not to do so that I don't break it.

Don't throw it from high buildings ...


text:
Why does an app read my phone's IMEI number? An awful lot of them do
What reasons should an app have to need my phone's International Mobile Equipment Identity number?  I noticed that unreasonably many of ordinary apps have the "phone state and identity" permission.  For example, Remember the Milk.  What do they ask it for?  Am I insufficiently paranoid?

possible duplicate of Why do so many android applications require permission to use the phone?

See this answer: http://android.stackexchange.com/a/3368/440

Many apps use the IMEI for analytics purposes, for example counting users. Most tools like Google Analytics or Flurry need a unique ID per phone, so the IMEI fits quite well.
Note that this doesn't work on non-cellular platforms (like tablets), and the IMEI can also be faked: this is why some apps choose a different system (see this article).

It's often used to identify the unique phone, but often this is actually quite a bad idea. Most apps would be better off identifying you as a user, who can use multiple different devices on one account.


text:
Android default browser crashes on accessing specific page (no error message)
When I access this page from my default Android browser:
http://blog.mylookout.com/blog/2011/12/06/carrieriq/
it loads up fine, but:

If I click / tap / double-tap anywhere on this page, it exits
If I browse up and down, its fine.
If I pinch / expand anywhere on the page, it exits.
(Only once) I left it alone for a while and the browser exited on its own.

No default settings have been changed. I have lookout (free) installed on a 2.3.3 HTC Incredible S phone.

I have the same on my Desire S. Seems to be a bug in Skia font metrics calculation.
All I could get from the crash was that it is in:
SkPaint::getFontMetrics(SkPaint::FontMetrics*, float) const


text:
How can I tell that my phone uses the Wi-Fi connection for data traffic?
I just bought the Samsung Galaxy 2 and my monthly data plan allows me 250MB.
I have Wi-Fi at home with 100GB of data per month.
Obviously, I want to use my home Wi-Fi as much as possible on my phone, and I have no trouble connecting my phone to it.
My question is:
How do I know if my phone is accessing my home Wi-Fi and not my phone company's network when I access the internet on my phone.
I can see that my phone is connected to my home Wi-Fi but it is also connected to my phone company's network at the same time. Is there a way to see when I am using my home Wi-Fi and when I am using my phone company's network?
I am worried that if my phone connects to the phone company's network and not my home Wi-Fi, then I will end up with a huge bill. I just want to make sure I am using my home Wi-Fi when I am accessing the internet on my phone.

When you connect to Wi-Fi network, your EDGE/H/3G icon in status bar should be gone. It means, your mobile data isn't being used.

If you are connected via Wi-Fi, your phone will only use that connection. The only sort of data that would be required to use mobile data would be MMS (aka multimedia messages) everything else will operate with Wi-Fi if you have it.
One thing you'll also want to look into is the Wi-Fi sleep policy, to ensure you phone never disconnects from Wi-Fi if it is in range.
Go to:
Settings → Wifi → Advanced (via menu button) → Sleep Policy

Set this to "never", so your phone will always use Wi-Fi (if available) when it's asleep.
This also saves battery as the distance between your Wi-Fi and your phone is a lot shorter than the phone mast and your phone!
Update
If you are that concerned about using mobile data, search the market for "APN Droid", which is an app that completely turns on/off your mobile data.

Wi-fi uses more power as a 2G data connection and nearly the same amount (or even more) when using a 3G data connection. You can't tell that it uses less power just because of the distance.

From my experience 3G data uses significantly more battery than wifi, I assumed because of the distance but there may be other factors.

It is very reassuring to know that the phone will only use wi-fi if it is connected to a wi-fi but is there a way to know this for sure!

I have updated my answer with the perfect solution for you!

I don't know if this a problem of Cyanogen or of my device, but even setting the sleep policy to "never", it switches off wifi when is sleeping.

I think there was a paper somewhere that I linked before that showed that WiFi uses less power than 3G if it is actively transferring data, but 3G is more efficient for maintaining idle connections. This means that you probably should not use the "Never" sleep policy if your goal is to save battery on the long run.

There's an option to do this under Ice Cream Sandwich and later,

Go into Settings
Tap on Data Usage
Ensure that Mobile Data is activated, if not, a check-box stating Set mobile data limit will appear underneath, checking that will bring up a informational dialog box stating Limiting data usage.

Now the graph chart will have two sliders active amber (Warning) and red (Maximum), by moving the amber coloured bar, that is your Warning limit set.
And moving the red coloured bar, is your Maximum limit, set that to 250Mb max as per your case, and set the amber bar to around 230Mb as a warning and ICS/Jellybean will remind you that you are hitting the limit.

Check your signal bar in the top right corner of the notification bar. If it displays the both the WiFi (quarter circle) and the 3G/HDSPA bar (right triangle), then your phone will prefer WiFi, otherwise it will use 3G/HDSPA. Also note that the WiFi signal bar is overlaid with small triangles when there is an active data transfer through WiFi and the phone signal bar is overlaid with similar triangle when there is an active data transfer through 3G/HDSPA. Also note that the when 3G is active, the phone signal bar is overlaid with 3G or H icon. Also note that when connected to WiFi, the 3G/H icon is missing from the phone signal bar, which shows that 3G/HDSPA has been disabled.

You may appear to be connected to your Wi-Fi, but you may not be connected to the internet. It's possible that the internet is down.


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How to create an "if found" wallpaper for Android?
This is where I saw the terminology "if found wallpaper".

Make an "If Found" Wallpaper
However, if you do use a password or pin and lock your phone by default, be sure to update your wallpaper to include contact info.

Basically, since we're all locking our phones, you want a wallpaper that contains contact information, in case it's lost. Is there such a wallpaper for Android?

It's a pity that the built-in lock screens don't have a way to do this. Blackberrys have had a setting for years that allows you to set an "Owner Name" and "Owner Info" text that shows up when the device is locked. As my Blackberries have always been company devices, I just have my initials and an if found ring company switchboard text. The company also puts a sticker on the inside of the battery compartment door with a serial number and the company switchboard number.

Well, they DID add this in on Honeycomb. My tablet (Acer Iconia a500) has it built in on the lock screen. Did they cross-port this to ICS? I don't have it yet.

Android OS versions 3.x and above (Honeycomb, Ice Cream Sandwich) actually have a setting that allows you to specify "Owner info" text that will show up when the device is locked.
There are also many 3rd-party locks-screen replacement apps that allow for much greater configuration flexibility than the stock one, including the ability to specify any text on the locks-screen.
For the "unlocked" state, you can always modify an image to include the "if found..." text, copy it onto the device's SD Card (or internal storage area), and set that as the wallpaper.  You can use one of the myriad of free image editing software (e.g. Paint.NET) to add the text.

CyanogenMod also has it too (or it used to in CM6).

The setting is missing from the front-end on CM7.x, but if you edit the settings database manually and add the text, it will show up ;)

Makes me long even more for Galaxy Nexus' release on AT&T! meantime, can you guys explain how to back-end this in in CM7? I tried googling, but I only found something that looked like it was specific to Verizon phones.

@eidylon: The exact statements you need to execute are here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=11132463#post11132463

@BryanDenny: And also the toggle to turn it on: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=11144146&postcount=13532

To expand on Chahk's answer: go to the Settings app, and from the Personal section, choose Security (on a Samsung phone, choose Lock screen instead). Then tap Owner info, and enter your name, room number, phone number (though not of the same phone, obviously), or whatever.

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


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Nexus S 'flashes' screen when locking
When I lock my Nexus S, the screen flashes once:
It turns black, then the home screen appears again very shortly, then it's black again.
Do you have this aswell with a Nexus S on ICS 4.0.3? Is there a fix?

I haven't seen this with CyanogenMod 7. It may be a software / your-specific-phone hardware issue.

I haven't seen this on my Nexus S, neither with Gingerbread nor Ice Cream Sandwich.

Do you use Voodoo Sound / Color? Any custom Kernel? Stock ROM or custom ROM?

@Leandros None of the above. I did not 'manipulate' the Nexus S in any way. No rooting, no change of hardware or software. I've only installed apps via Marketplace.

IMM76D also has this problem, in spite of reflash (stock rom)

It's a software issue with Ice Cream Sandwich as far as I know, so no fix. It may only be present on certain models however, I only have anecdotal evidence for this but I have the issue on my Nexus S model IML74K but know someone with a different model of Nexus S and they don't seem to have the issue...

Ok, well I have the model number GT-I9023.

I'll try and find out what my friends is and post back when I know.


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What is HuaweiOnlineUpdataService?
I have just seen this line in logcat:
I/ActivityManager(  235): Start proc com.huawei.updata for service com.huawei.updata/.service.HuaweiOnlineUpdataService: pid=24608 uid=10048 gids={2001, 3003}

on a HUAWEI U8150 IDEOS with Android 2.2.
Any idea what is the goal of this HuaweiOnlineUpdataService?
Google has only 5 results for this term, with not enough information.

this service will running in background to show any updates is available for your phone.


text:
How can I take a screenshot of a specific portion of my screen?
There is no screenshot by area on my Galaxy Tab 8.9, running Android 3.1.
Is there any software that adds the ability to take a screenshot of only a portion of my screen rather than the whole area?

Since when does Super User develop the Android operating system or Samsung tablets?

What do you mean by "screenshot by area"? Like taking a screenshot of a specific portion of the screen rather than the entire screen?

@eldarerathis Yes, I want to take a specific portion of  the screen.

There is no tool with this feature. But it is possible to crop the picture in the gallery.


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Accounts inexplicably removed from "Accounts & sync"
I'm running CyanogenMod 7.1.0 on my HTC Desire. I have a few accounts added in "Accounts & Sync" (Last.fm, Facebook, Skype, Soundcloud, etc.), but on several occasions all of them (except Google) got deleted, and I had to log in again in all of them using the respective applications. This could be quite annoying, but fortunately happens only every few days or so.
I can't quite understand why it happens and what causes it. I have some suspicion it might be related to the fact I don't have much space on the device (Desire notoriously has ridiculously little internal storage) -- although I always keep it above the "Low space" warning (which is something like 15 MB).
Is this a known problem? What can I do to prevent it?

Did you install these apps to the sdcard?

@RichardBorcsik: I did, actually. But the accounts disappear only rarely, sometimes week pass between occasions. But you might be right that it could have something to do with SD card mounting. I need to experiment to confirm

So did you have any success? AFAIR providing a sync-account belongs to the criteria for apps one should not move to SD, so I'm pretty sure this is related. If you found the answer, feel free to place it in an answer and accept it yourself -- so other users affected by the same problem can find it ;)

After some months of additional observation, I'm pretty certain that the accounts disappear when the free internal space gets low, usually when I'm down to 12 MB or so. Presumably, Android tries to free up some internal space occupied by app data, and the accounts seem to be the first to go.
Due to the low internal storage, I have moved all apps to the external storage, so this might as well be a factor, as Izzy mentions in the comments.


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How do I stop the 3g/4g radio from turning off?
When I watch youtube videos on my samsung epic 4g, most of the time when I click a video to watch it does the "Loading" spin gif animation forever, and I can see the little arrows on the 3g/4g symbol are off.
If I hit back and load again 3 - 5 times the arrows light up and the video acutally plays.
This is incredibly irritating.
Is there a way I can tell the phone to always keep the radio connection active while the charger is plugging in, or something like that?
Alternatively, does anyone know how if there is another way to fix this youtube issue?
Thanks so much, this is driving me crazy.

If you see the 3G/4G symbol and the arrows are just grey, that just means that you have data connectivity but there is no send or receive activity at the moment.
I guess you made an false assumption: The data radio is only off (deactivated) if you don't see the the symbol at all. Otherwise, if the symbol is there and the arrows are grey, your radio is on, but there is no traffic happening at the moment.

I see... so maybe this is an issue with the youtube application itself?

@asawyer: Either that or there's a problem with the network. Try switching to a different cell tower by moving to a different part of the city or a different city and see if youtube plays acceptably there.

Check the comments on the latest update of youtube. That might give you a hint :)

@Nanne How would one check that?

(I don't know why I added this as a comment to this answer, and not on your question :)  ) Anyway: https://market.android.com/details?id=com.google.android.youtube  , and then press reviews, and sort by newest

True network connectivity issues are usually pretty easy to identify as they would affect data to/from every app on the device. Are you also having trouble browsing the web, running speed tests, or streaming other types of video (like Netflix or other flash players)? Do you see the same issue on a stable WiFi connection?
If you're in an area where Sprint's Wimax coverage is spotty your phone might be switching back and forth between 2G/3G/4G trying to find the best connection - this could be the delay you're seeing. Even in areas with good 4G network coverage, some kinds of 4G radios can show inconsistent speed and reception results. If you disable Wimax/4G do videos load correctly? If you disable 3G as well?
This strikes me as a more app-specific problem. Does this occur with every YouTube video? Does changing the video quality ("HQ" button, top-right corner in landscape mode) change the symptoms? Check these areas, I suspect you'll find an operating mode that lets you view videos without frustrating delays.

It is consistent behavior with both 3g and 4g, but wifi works fine. How do I switch the phone into 2g mode?  It occurs after every video, so the first one starting works fine, but the next one needs to switch back and forth from the play screen back to the prev. a few times before it will play. I always use the non-landscape one as well, so there is no hq button.

@asawyer: Are you seeing the same behavior in other apps? Specifically Netflix, Videos, or the browser (playing a Flash video not on Youtube). It looks like I was mistaken, I'm not finding an easy way to make a CDMA device fallback to 2G; in either case, other apps' performance will help narrow the scope.

@MrBuster Youtube seems to be the only app with the issue. Netflix does weird things where it declares there is no network connection while everything else is fine, but i think that's just netflix being weird, and very rare.

@asawyer: I've had issues with Netflix saying "no connection" too (dinc, miui 11.20), never troubles with YouTube though. Try the basics - clear the YouTube app cache, reinstall if necessary. Did get a chance to check if "HQ" mode hangs the same way?

Are you using a Battery saving app like Battery XL ?
If so, try to disable it, it caused me a lot of problems.
Have you tried also to switch on Airplane mode and switch it back off and retry ?

Are you using the original YouTube app by Google? Alternatively, try using http://m.youtube.com using your stock browser.

I've tried this, but I get an error message all video's usually. Sometimes a reboot will let them work for a little while though, but I'd rather deal with the app nonsense then reboot the phone every couple hours.


text:
Android Facebook, no chat
I got my LG Optimus 2X and installed the facebook app however, there is no chat anywhere, not even in menu, is there a way to allow this?

Facebook have a separate app these days called Facebook Messenger, this has both Facebook's chat and inbox features in it. Why they've split it out into a separate app now, I don't know, but this should give you what you're after:

Facebook Messenger is a faster way to send mobile messages to friends.
  With Messenger, you can send and receive messages with any of your
  friends around the world or anyone in your mobile contacts list.
  Messenger is available on iPhone, Android, and Blackberry.
Messenger lets you:

Send messages instantly to other friends who have Messenger
Chat
  with friends who are on Facebook
Get free push notifications for
  incoming messages

Thanks! I installed it, its pretty good, the only problem I find is that I can't see who's online or offline on it.


text:
Google Mail missing in Cyanogenmod (gApps)?
I installed Cyanogenmod and noticed that Google Mail is missing. I can't install it form the Market either. Market, Talk and so on are there, just Google Mail is missing.
How can I install Google Mail?

What version of CyanogenMod?

If you have a Titanium backup containing the apps, it's easy enough to restore... Go to menu, 'batch' operations, and scroll down to "restore".

There seems to be a problem with the latest Cyanogenmod 7.1.0 and the german locale. Possible solutions are

Some users report that if you search google on your phone for "gmail market" and open the market:// link with the Market, Gmail will install.
Use the market enabler to change your mobile provider and download the gmail app.
Manually install the .apk from this thread

Google does not provide some apps in the Market, since they're intended for "approved" devices (ones that meet Google's compatibility guidelines).  However, I believe they have a special agreement with CyanogenMod where you can flash the apps separately. You can read more about how to install these packages at "How can I install the Google Apps Package (Play Store, …) on my Android device?"

Install ROM Manager from the Market and then go to Download ROM, find Google Apps in the list and then you can choose the latest and install it. You can also see comments and ratings from other users.


text:
How can I set my external keyboard to use a Dvorak layout?
Tested in Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9 and Samsung Galaxy S4 in >= Android 5.0.1 with Logitech Bluetooth keyboard and Apple Wireless keybord 3rd generation without rooting the phone and without external applications. Also tested in the CyanogenMod versions of the corresponding Androids.
I found a bug in Android main system's Dvorak in Lollipop >= 5.0.1, 11.1.2016.
Connect Bluetooth keyboard to your system. Choose some keyboard Dvorak. Go to SMS. Double tap Space and Select English US Dvorak. Type with your Wireless keyboard (I use Apple Wireless keyboard 3rd gen). It types Qwerty put shows physically Dvorak in the screen. This is a bug in Android, which bug report is here with the issue number 198665.

How can I set my external keyboard to use a Dvorak layout without hacks?

I doubt you can, those files aren't editable without root and Android doesn't support it yet.

Not sure if its a duplicate, but this sounds very similar to this previous question How to switch keyboard layout for external keyboard although that is a localization as well as layout change, and you're presumably keeping the same language, but changing layout.

You can use External Keyboard Helper Pro to do it. No need for rooting. From version 2.7, the app supports Dvorak out-of-the-box.
Disclaimer: I'm the developer of this app.

You can use the Root Explorer to change the keyboard layout file in /system/usr/keylayout/
For the details, XDA forum explains it well.

This can be set by the "Language and Input" menu in the "Physical Keyboard" sub-section.
Touch the name of your paired keyboard, and touch the "Set Keyboard Type" button. Scroll down to "English (US), Dvorak Style" and touch it.

Sorry. This answer is buggy. I tested it. Connect Bluetooth keyboard to your system. Choose some keyboard Dvorak. Go to SMS. Double tap Space and Select English US Dvorak. Type with your Wireless keyboard (I use Apple Wireless keyboard 3rd gen). It types Qwerty put shows physically Dvorak in the screen. This is a bug in Android!


text:
Tools for using connected phone via PC/Headset
My question is: Are there any tools to use a via USB connected android phone on windows/pc?
I'm using a analog headset and want to answer calls via the headset when my phone is connected.

A Phone connected through the USB, no.
But if the phone is instead connected through bluetooth to the PC, you can try to turn on HFP (Hands Free Profile) Bluetooth profile service from your PC's bluetooth stack. The only way I found this possible was from the BlueSoleil Bluetooth Stack Software where you can set the bluetooth to parade as a "headset" instead of "laptop/desktop" and hence your phone can connect to the PC thinking it is a headset.
However, BlueSoleil is not free and the evaluation version allows only 2MB worth of voice data packets in one connection after which the connection is automatically interrupted.

Looks like you're right but in one point: Depending on the BT driver it's possible to use the phone for free. See also: http://superuser.com/questions/58632/can-i-use-my-pc-as-a-bluetooth-headset-for-my-mobile-phone


text:
Does Android 4.0 (ICS) support Kannada Font?
I am developing one regional language kannada news app,in which my problem is that,in 2.2 and 2.3 the app does not suppport kannada fonts whereas 3.0 supports kannada font.
One month back I heard that Android would provide all 3.0 features in 4.0
So my question to enthusiasts is that could any one help me about how to go with the kannada font?


text:
How can I add a calender to my Android tablet?
How can I add a calender to my Android tablet? In Settings>Accounts& Synch I can only create Exchange account. There is no option to create any calendar. I do not have android market, google calender, gmail android apps. I standard calendar pre-installed - but I can do nothing because I have no calendars to save events. How to fix it?

Seems like you have an Android tablet without the Google APIs. This are devices that use Android but without a Google branding ("with Google (TM)") and Google Services Framework (Google API) to avoid paying fees to Google.
Android itself is open-source so every manufacture can use it without charge on their devices, but if they want to have the Google Services like Market, Maps, Navigation, Google Calendar and so an, they have to pay a license fee to Google. You can recognize devices with Google Services based on the "with Google (TM)" branding on the back of the device.
AFAIK there a ways to install the Google API when you have root on your device.

What do you mean by "avoid paying fees to Google"

@roxan I have updated my answer

Thanks I didn't know about that. Do you have some reading material regarding the license fee?


text:
Save more then 200 SMS per contact on 2.3?
I've noticed that my Samsung Galaxy Gio (Android 2.3) saves only 200 SMS per contact. Is there any way to save more?

In the messaging app, access menu > settings > text message limit
and set it to a higher number you like.
Hope this helps.

Did the job :) And I can also turn it off completely.


text:
What I have to do to connect my android smartphone (Galaxy Ace S5830) to home wifi wpa2?
I searched in the internet a lot, but there's no clear answer. I have Galaxy Ace s5830 with system Android. I tried connect to home wifi network (this network is secured by WPA2), but my smartphone can't connect. I putted wpa2 password correctly for sure.
When I push "Connect" button, for a while it's "Scanning...", and then says "Disconnect". If I disable security of my home wifi network, I can connect and it's working well.
I don't know where the problem is: on the android system or hardware of my smartphone, or maybe on the router.
I heard that there are problems with Android and WiFi connection by WPA2, but is there no solution or I can't find its.
Thanks.

There are some incompatibilities between Android devices and wireless routers. I've seen the same behavior on a couple of WLANs and some even go to "Acquiring IP Address..." and then disconnect. I suspect that your phone works well in other WPA2 secured WLANs?
I haven't so far seen a comprehensive list of non-functioning routers, but at least one Netgear and a locally-branded Cisco Cable modem with integrated Wifi have failed for me.

On WPA - it connects, but if I lost range, I can't connect again. This same is on WEP. Without security it works well and without problems.

Try this, for it happened to me and a Nexus 7. My wireless router had the option of having the network run in WPA/WPA2 Personal or just WPA2. In WPA/WPA2 the Nexus 7 was stuck in a loop connecting and disconnecting from the network. Switching this to WPA2 only solved the problem for my Nexus 7. It may help in your case too.

I don't even bother trying to use WPA/WPA2 anymore. I use WPA2 alone. I haven't seen @kspacja's type of connection fail for a year now. This solution worked for me.


text:
How do I increase the size of logcat buffers?
How do I increase the size of /dev/log/main by a factor of 10? My understanding is the log has a fixed size (16K?) and rolls over when that limit is reached. I'd like to find out what the log size is currently set at and increase it by a lot.
I'm debugging an issue that occurs infrequently when the device hasn't been used for a long period of time (maybe an hour?). I've instrumented the code with log messages so I can understand what is happening when the bug occurs.
My problem is my instrumentation causes the log to roll over in about 2 minutes. I would like to increase the size of dev/log/main by a factor of 10 if possible.

I presume that leaving it connected to the computer with adb logcat > my_log_file.log running isn't an option?

To find out the actual size of the ring buffer, you can use
$ adb logcat -g

To adjust the size of the ring buffer, you might try
$ adb logcat -r <kbytes>

At least that's what some tutorials say. For more details, you might want to read "adb logcat" Command Options and Log Buffers.
P.S.: I guess those settings (manual adjusted ring buffer size) will not survive a reboot -- just to consider.

actually it needs tp be  adb logcat -r 100000 -f sdcard/log.log . -f is required.

I dont think -r is useful as from reading the logcat manual, it will set the size at which the logcat tool will rotate the file it is writing out to using the "-f" option and NOT the size of the in-memory ring buffer used by the logger kernel module!

Starting with Android 5, the in-kernel logger driver is deprecated which exposed the ring buffers through /dev/log/* character devices. Instead a userspace logging daemon named logd manages buffers “main”, “system”, “radio”, “events”, and “crash”. Optional buffers “security” (e.g. for adb shell/push/pull logging) and on userdebug builds “kernel” (for klogd) and “stats” (for logs statistics) were added later. logd mainly covers the functionality of its desktop counterpart syslogd, but also includes klogd and partially auditd to get logs from SELinux subsystem of kernel. Behavior of logging daemon is controlled through different properties.
Apps and native processes write their logs to relevant buffers through socket /dev/socket/logdw (by making use of liblog functions). logcat command reads the buffers from /dev/socket/logdr while controls the daemon and buffers through /dev/socket/logd socket. Use -g/-G options to get and set size of individual buffers:
  -g, --buffer-size
                  Get the size of the ring buffer.
  -G <size>, --buffer-size=<size>
                  Set size of log ring buffer, may suffix with K or M.

There's also an option in Developer Options: Logger buffer sizes (which also sets property persist.logd.size) to set same size for all buffers.
persist.logd.size is read from /data/property/ which isn't available unless /data is mounted and decrypted (in case of FDE). But sometimes buffers may overflow even before that, so the solution is to set ro.logd.size (through default.prop/build.prop or directly in some *.rc file) before the logd service is started.

Thank you very much for that tip about increasing the size of the buffer persistently between boots! It was very useful while debugging a timing error that occurred before I could adjust the size.

If you're looking to change the default size for a log buffer, to persist between reboots, you can recompile the kernel with updated buffer sizes.
The file containing log buffer definitions is:
<kernel>/drivers/staging/android/logger.c

The versions I'm looking at use a macro to define log buffers in that file:
DEFINE_LOGGER_DEVICE(variable, name, size)

There will likely be a number of loggers; "main" is usually the one you're looking for.

This should be known on all the related questions here and on stackoverflow ! Nice find. Of note, Main and System are the default logcat buffers. You'd probably want to increase them both. Well, depending on if your Android version uses them. See logcat -g and logcat -h

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


text:
Save merged contacts information
I just spent a lot of time merging contacts from different sources (two Google accounts, Google+, Twitter, Facebook, Skype), and now my contact list looks somewhat clean for the first time in months. So far so good.
In the past, when I reset my phone (I'm a CyanogenMod user, so resetting my phone happens from time to time), I lost all info about merged contacts, which is really a pain. Is it possible to back up and restore this information somewhere, e.g. through an app?
edit: I did the merging in the stock contact manager of Ice Cream Sandwich (CM 9 alpha)

Your contacts should all be backed up to the Google account you registered your phone with, provided that you are saving your contacts to Google and not your SIM card.  Check to make sure that you are using Google as your default contact list, and that syncing for contacts for that account is checked.
UPDATE:
You can use Titanium Backup to migrate settings between ROM wipes for other apps/contacts.

The contacts are synced, that isn't the problem. What doesn't seem to get synced to Google is the information on joined contacts from other providers (Skype, facebook, ...). That information is lost after a reset AFAICT

Although just a "little" late I did create a free application called Total Backup to save and restore most of the contact joins without needing root. It can be found at Google Play or Amazon Appstore. Don't hesitate with feedback.


text:
Samsung Galaxy 7" (GT-P6210) USB debugging is not detecting in Linux?
I am using ubuntu Linux 10.04 Pc in that my Samsung Galaxy 7" (GT-P6210) homeycomb 3.2 is not detecting for development its showing in eclipse as
DeviceMonitor] Failed to start monitoring ????????????  in console
and in device tab its showing ?????????????.
Except this 7' GT-P6210 Samsung tablet all other Samsung devices are showing fine.
When I switch off the tablet and connected to the USB its showing the number and online as status.
List of devices attached
4641199B0F8488AE    device
why? whats the problem any solution.
NOTE:
I already Added 51-android.rules
Samsung 04E8

and also I enabled the USB debugging mode.
Its working fine in Mac.
I found that only its not detecting in updated ADT r16, except all other ADT version device is detecting very fine.
any idea?

When adb shows devices as ???????????? it's usually a permission problem and the usb device file. Your udev rules doesn't seem right. Make sure that you have udev configured to something like this:
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", SYSFS{idVendor}=="04e8", MODE="0666"

Where 04e8 is Samsung's USB Vendor ID.
Under Linux there is also an adb_usb.ini from the SDK where you have to add the vendor IDs:
~/.android/adb_usb.ini
# ANDROID 3RD PARTY USB VENDOR ID LIST -- DO NOT EDIT.
# USE 'android update adb' TO GENERATE.
# 1 USB VENDOR ID PER LINE.
0x17ef
0x1949

Oh that's funny, add vendor IDs when it says "DO NOT EDIT" :)

You can safely ignore this warning. Just manually add the vendor IDs. More on android update adb can be found here.

Wasn't saying that you are wrong, I just found that amusing :) But thanks for clarifying it

@Flow I just want know why when I switch off the tablet and connected to the USB its showing the number and online as status. adb devices List of devices attached 4641199B0F8488AE device


text:
Delete programs pre-installed on Samsung Galaxy 551

Possible Duplicate:
How can I uninstall applications that are locked by phone vendor?

How can I delete some programs that are pre-installer on my phone?
On settings I can't delete them, is there a way to delete those?
I'll use it focused on development.
It has some samsung applications that I'll never use.
It comes with Android 2.2
Thanks in advance for any help

Also http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/35/how-do-you-remove-pre-installed-apps-on-a-rooted-phone and http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/834/how-do-i-remove-htc-desire-pre-installed-android-applications


text:
Why isn't the name of my device changing?
I changed the name of my new Kindle Fire within my Amazon account by going to Manage My Kindle -> Manage My Devices. Everything seems to have gone fine on the account side, but the upper left hand corner of my Fire still just says "Abby's Kindle". Lamest name ever. It's been about 24 hours since I made the change in my account. Why hasn't it changed? What step am I missing?

Have you tried hitting the "sync" button in the status bar menu? Allegedly that can help (source: http://androidadvices.com/change-kindle-fire-device/#axzz1hwM4JV2R).

If you haven't tried this yet, I think you should try syncing your device. To sync the device, you tap on the settings button on the top right and select sync.


text:
Samsung galaxy phones shuts down automatically
I own a Samsung Galaxy Note. I have seen that very randomly and infrequently, my device just turns off on its own. I then have to restart it by pressing on the power button.
Yes, the device has enough battery life left in it.
I have seen the same behaviour in my previous Samsung Galaxy S as well.
Any one out here experiencing the same, or does any one know why its happening and what I could do to fix it?

I had the same behaviour, related to frequent "driving mode" madness. I don't know if the driving mode is an effect of the same cause or not, but when one stopped the other did too.
What I did to stop it (some might be BS, but It didn't do it a second time, so I can't find out what was the help)

Dry it off (some rain might have gotten into the USB port)
Clean the usb port.
Shut off, remove battery, wait 10 minutes
Restart.
Connect to wall-outlet-charger (full charge, as opposed to computer charge)
Stop charging it with el cheapo, very thin, shaky cables.

Yeah My Samsung Galaxy S2 behave like that sometimes... I thought I pressed the power button for quite too long (I was using an annoying skin fit cover). But now that you mention it, Yes it happens. But ever since I am using Amzer covers there has never been a problem like that. Yes the some weird app eats up memories and shuts down the phone, but it is not turning off anymore.

I have upgraded to ICS and havent seen this bug since then.

Yes, It is a "Loose " battery issue. I had the same problem with my galaxy xcover and cured it totally by adding a layer of thick adhesive tape at the end of the battery in order to press it harder against the contacts, and 2 layers of adhesive tape at the back of the battery in order to keep it more firmly in place.
Problem solved !!

I had a problem with the phone rebooting apparently without any cause about once a day, I only realized that because it played the boot sound. I think that was because the case I use might fit a little bit too tight and in some situations pressed the power button for a long time which, if I do that intentionally also initializes a reboot.
I have adjusted the case and haven't experienced the problem since then.

Not sure about other Galaxy devices but the Note 2 shuts off on it's own under various conditions, all hardware related. Take a look at this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjLn2yikYnI and also this site I built that goes in to more detail regarding the issue: www.GalaxyNote2ShutsOff.com
One look at that short video and I am sure there will be some light bulbs going off. Be sure to read the details I provided on that site as well. They go in to detail about the problems that I have had and the lack of proper support that Samsung is willing to provide.

When you put wifi in sleepy condition, it keeps CPU busy & overloaded putting wifi on and off frequently, so putting wifi never sleepy condition the CPU is less burdened & more efficient, which ensures phone never shutdown on its own.

Welcome to Android Enthusiasts! I very much doubt it will "overload" the CPU, nor will it make the device "never shutdown on its own" (if the battery is empty, it will still do so). I can't even see how this is connected to the issue; mind to explain?

i had the same problem , my phone switches off and on for about 20-25 times a day ,,
horrible isnt it ,
well .. !!
this is wat i did to over come this problem , and it worked fine .
go to
settings > wireless and network > wifi settings > using menu option choose advance settings >wifi sleep policy > select "never" > press menu option and save ..
have happy time :)

What does the sleep policy have to do with shutdowns? This seems like a red herring.


text:
Why can't I get s=ON on my MyTouch 4g?
I have followed the following 2 tutorials on how to unroot and get S=ON on the MyTouch 4g:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=834225
I have successfully reverted to the stock ROM and unrooted the phone, but I still have S=OFF.  When I run the first one in the emulator, it gets all the way through execution and tells me to reboot into hboot to get s=ON, but when I do that, it still shows S=OFF:
Duplicating hboot
2048+0 records in
2048+0 records out
1048576 bytes transferred in 0.563 secs (1862479 bytes/sec)
Synchronizing
Powerdown and reboot into hboot to check s=on

I really would like to get S=ON so that I can ask my provider for service if I need it.

As it turns out, my problem was that I have unrooted my phone before attempting to reset to S=Off.  The kernel Did not allow this, because the phone was, obviously, not rooted.  After rerooting my phone and attempting the method above again (I had to enter the commands in the unroot script manually.  It didnt work when just running the script), I was able to get S=On and revert to the Stock ROM.

This link should help. It contains a link to a thread detailing a special zip file created by one of the developers. It will help you possibly get S-ON. The step by step instructions are in the thread:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=863899
By the way, S-OFF isn't something service technicians actively look for. Many people have sent in phones for servicing with S-Off and technicians still fix it. With my Nexus One, once you get S-Off, it shows an unlock symbol that doesn't go away and is shown every time with the splash image during boot. However, many of my friends with this phone have gotten it fixed without problems.
EDIT: If the S-OFF doesnt work, you should private message or PM the developer who created the zip file on xda. He will be better able to help you as he has repeatedly got S-ON and S-OFF. I dont have the same device. Unfortunately, the bootloaders are device specific and vary on the manufacturer. My experience with S-OFF will be different from yours.

I have attempted that and I still have S=OFF.  If you don't mind me asking, what provider do you have?  I have brought my phone in before and the salespeople seem to check for S=Off before they will even process a claim, which I assume means that they will void my warranty if the see S=Off, as I have been told before.

@Gautham: Sending people to some other site for their answer isn't really helpful. Linkrot happens, of course. Can you at least summarize what will be found at that destination?

@AlEverett, you are right. Edited the post according to your recommendation.

@ewok My service provider is T-Mobile but they aren't the ones who repair it. It usually is sent to a manufacturer's service center (GSM based phones anyway) so mine would go to an HTC repair center.


text:
Video-out solution for an analog input
I just got a Galaxy Nexus and love it. My current debacle is trying to figure out how to hook up my phone the display in my car which only has analog inputs (composite.) That worked perfectly with my old Droid Incredible as it did video out with composite through the microusb port. So i've been looking around for a solution and have found two viable options:

Get a digital to analog converter box which is around $50 off amazon and I already have the TV out cable for the Galaxy Nexus which works fine.
Find a product like apple TV for android where I can push the video to screen through an independent device but I'm not about to install a wireless router in the car.

Right now I feel the only real option seems the converter box but that seems far to cumbersome of a solution for what I'm trying to do. Anyone have a better idea or cheaper idea?

I ended up getting the Digital to Analog converter off Amazon. I tried the suggestion of onik but Galaxy Nexus has different 3.5mm jack than other Galaxy phones. I even tried my old HTC Incredible video out cable that goes through a modified microUSB but I didn't fit the Galaxy Nexus microusb port. There was no solution, that I could find, for an analog video other than the Digital to Analog converter. I installed it today and it works perfectly so I my phone mirrors to my head units display without a hitch.
The only trouble I ran into was powering the AC powered unit. I already had a DC to AC converter so I just plugged the AC power of the Video converter box in to the power converter box and hit it away in my glove box (many conversions, haha.) It looks seamless until you open the glove box.

I'm not sure about the Galaxy Nexus, but the older Galaxy models can output analog video through the headphone jack. The cable is similar to Nokia CA-75U. Since the phone is a Google reference model without Samsung's addons, I'm not sure if this works, but I'd say it's worth a try.

I researched and tried that solution but the built in port doesn't support it. Good thought though, thanks!


text:
How do I root my Kindle Fire?
There are a half-dozen or so questions on the Kindle Fire here where the answers involve having already rooted your device (including my recently-asked How can I get the Android Market installed on my Kindle Fire?). Ok, fine - doing dodgy stuff requires dodgy prep work. But... How?
I checked The Master List of Rooting Techniques, and found SuperOneClick suggested as the solution for the Fire... But as pleasant as this sounds, in practice this seemingly-easy-to-use tool proves inadequate: the device has been updated to break the technique it uses.
So what's the story (morning glory)? Am I stuck using the device the way it was intended to be used (shudder)? If not, what arcane magick will free me from these chains of conformity?

You can use Kindle Fire Utility to easily get root and Market with Google Apps.
It has support for the latest Kindle Fire firmware (6.2.1 currently).

This tool has 3 detected virus on virustotal.com https://www.virustotal.com/file/41108bda0891d2755f0163ee488cabf46ea4a313ceb96a1fc1bf670b6afbd085/analysis/

This is a very slick tool, took me all of 5 minutes to root my Fire the second time around.

As of January 2016 the page linked contains this: "WARNING: DO NOT use this on 2nd Generation Devices or you risk bricking your Device."

BurritoRoot seems to be the way to go for root on the Kindle Fire. I rooted mine with this tool and then installed TWRP to get ICS on the Fire.
BurritoRoot is a simple .apk that needs to be installed. Rooting itself is then easy as with SuperOneClick. Here are the resources for BurritoRoot:

Offical XDA Thread for BurritoRoot
AndroidPolice Blog post with download link

Once you have root access, Amazon's Prime video service will lock you out of downloading or watching streaming video. Installing OTA RootKeeper will let you remove root when it's not needed, and allow video to work.

There's also a Kindle Fire Utility that works well with Burrito Root. The trouble is getting your windows 7 to recognize the Kindle Fire Device. I was able to do this only after deleting the Android Composite ADB Interface from Device Manager.


text:
How to root a HTC Desire running official Android 2.3?
I have an HTC Desire (Bravo, A8181, GSM) sold in Sweden. I updated it to Android 2.3 using the official release, which is as of 2011-12-29 available at HTCdev with instructions from here.
Now I want to root it. I did some googling and it seems like it isn't possible to root a Desire that has been updated to the official Android 2.3. I tried following this guide, but it failed at step 6 in How to: Root. When I attempted to run unrevoked, the progress text running root... was followed by the error message Error: failed to get root. Is your firmware too new?.
I also tried searching for a way to downgrade it to Android 2.2, with no luck.
How can I root this phone?

I also have a blog post on how to root HTC Desire 2.3.3. http://techspalace.blogspot.com/2011/10/perm-root-htc-desire-gingerbread-233.html

In my searching I stumbled across Revolutionary. It looked good enough, so I downloaded it and ran it. It prompted me to plug my phone in, and then it pretty much did the rest on its own. The result was that a custom recovery system was set up, from which it is easy to install ROMs and the like to the phone.
The Revolutionary docs mentions a zip file you need to install in order to root the phone. In order to install the zip file, I first downloaded it to my phone's SD card. Revolutionary only sets up the mentioned recovery system, so the official HTC Android 2.3 was still intact and running on the phone. I used that to mount the SD card on my computer and copy the zip file, but I could just as well have done it using Revolutionary.
After placing the zip file on my SD card, I shut down the phone, then held the volume down button and pressed the power button. This results in starting the phone's bootloader, from where one can start the recovery system (Revolutionary in my case). This greeted me with a neat menu containing the entry install zip from sdcard. I selected this and navigated to the zip file I downloaded. When the installation was complete, I rebooted the phone into Android, and my app drawer now contained the Superuser app. Root complete!


text:
Officially rooted HTC, denies su permission in Android Emulator app
officially rooted from htcdev.com, I followed the instructions step by step and had the screen confirmation that my phone (HTC Sensation XL) is rooted.
Now when trying to gain super user access through "Android emulator", "Superuser", "Super manager" the permission is denied or the apps cannot detect if the device has been rooted.
I want to know why root access is denied after the device has been rooted successfully and how to fix this issue, am I missing extra steps or additional settings?

HTCdev has instructions for unlocking your bootloader, but I don't think it roots your phone - that is a different process. Is that what you did? How did you install Superuser?

yeah you are right "unlock bootloader" has noting to do with root. I installed Superuser from marketplace and it is all blank, it does not do anything. I am doing all these to delete some stock apps comes with the phone. My device has over 50 stock apps installed, and I believe should be the user right to permanently remove these commercial apps from the device without any hack or trick.

Thanks to "eldarerathis" for the comment. Basically unlock bootloader does not mean you will have root access to your device. Even though you can install an entire new operating system still rooting your phone must be done inside the OS.
So if you trying to root your HTC device check unrevoked.com. for other devices I found a reliable tutorial at http://howto.cnet.com/8301-11310_39-20054428-285/how-to-root-your-android/.
please note unlock bootloader or rooting your device may void your warrantee.

First, root your phone. If it denies root access, go to the SuperUser website and download the latest SuperUser and binary packages. After that, reboot in recovery and install the packages. Finally, boot your phone up normally and clear the data of SuperUser. Then, run SuperUser and try updating the binaries and BAAAAM works like a charm!

Makesure you unlock your boot loader first and on some devices switch to s-off


text:
How can I download an MP3 to my phone instead of opening it in a music player?
I'm trying to download podcast MP3s to my phone so I can listen to them in my car. Ideally, I'd like to be able to Chrome-to-Phone them from my computer at home, and then choose  to download and play them back from my device once I get in my car.
The problem is that when I send an MP3 URL to my phone, the browser only gives me the option of playing the audio directly in a media player. This is a really poor experience because it can't properly buffer the podcast file for smooth playback and it doesn't seem to allow me to play in the background.

I tried both Download All Files and using ASTRO's "Enable Browser Downloads". The screenshot above was taken with both apps installed. I've also tried using Google Listen to download podcasts, but I can never seem to use that without the download getting corrupted or the app crashing in some way.
Does anyone know what I need to do to be able to download MP3s instead of just playing them back immediately?

Have you tried using a different browser?

@eldarerathis I've tried both the stock CM browser and Dolphin HD. Both behave the same.

For what it's worth, this worked for me™.  Note that I downloaded an MP3 from DropBox (https://dl-web.dropbox.com/get/music/knocker.mp3?w=894245c0, although you'll probably get "Access Denied" if you try that URL), and I was using Android 4.  But: I clicked the "Chrome To Phone" button, my phone chirped, and I saw the little downward-pointing animated arrow, quickly replaced by a notification that said "Download Complete".

You can try ADM download manager. Or hold URL and press save link.

Are you able to Chrome-to-Phone a page containing the link to the mp3 you want? If so, Dolphin (and most most every Android browser) will allow you to "save link as" (or similar) when you long-press on it. This will download the file instead of trying to play or stream it.
More cumbersome solutions include downloading the mp3 you want on your PC then transferring via Dropbox or syncing via doubleTwist (or even their AirSync for-pay feature). Doubletwist even has its own built in podcast features much like iTunes. BigCaseyDog's answer about Amazon MP3 would be a very similar alternative to Dropbox.
FWIW, I'm a Pocket Casts fan for the purposes of this very question - I was stuck with the same problem you describe until I fell in love with their download feature, among other things.

You could always upload the music to Amazon's free Cloud Player (included both online at www.amazon.com and in the Amazon MP3 app for Android) on your home computer. Then, download the Amazon MP3 app on your phone (if it's not already installed). Get it set up by typing in your Amazon account info, and sync in with your Cloud Drive, which lets you stream your music on your phone. Your music collection can either be streamed in the cloud, downloaded to the SD Card, or played with any media player on your phone.

The only way I've found to do this (without signing up for a new service) seems to be installing Opera Mobile. Opera has the ability to download files instead of just using Android's default Intents menu for MP3s.
According to comments in the original question, it looks like Android 4.0 can do this natively.


text:
Phone reboots when I navigate past Falkirk
Occasionally when navigating, my phone will freeze (the display and also the music, if it's playing) then reboot a few seconds later.  I realised today that while it's happened in other places, driving past Falkirk seems to trigger it.
My question is: Given that I'm away from my PC, and it doesn't happen very often, how can I diagnose the (general, rather than location-specific) issue?  I've got an HTC Desire running CM7 and I'm comfortable using a shell.

Try turning off wifi completely then driving past Falkirk several times.  I'm surprised this happens with CM but my experience so far with Gingerbread on the Galaxy Note is that it's very stable so long as you don't have wifi enabled or use an SD card.  (I am trying to remain objective)

Thanks for the suggestion -- I'll try it out when next I'm passing, but I think Juice Defender should be turning WiFi off anyway.


text:
Backing up everything on my kindle fire with ubuntu before installing firefirefire, can't get past Hellions with blue flames when rooting
I'm trying to follow this post in order to install firefirefire on my kindle fire:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1369405&page=1
I'm at the part at the beginning of the guide that has me back up everything:

This will back up all partitions and the hidden NVRAM data. If you
  ever have to restore from scratch, you can get fastboot to write a new
  partition table and then fastboot in these backups Need >8GB local
  free, and adb installed and able to get a shell. Root not required so
  you can do this on a fresh out-of-the-box KF. Make a new directory to
  store the dump files and cd into it. Get and copy zergRush into the
  directory. You must use zergRush even if you're rooted!!! We need adb
  running as root for this to work. Then run in a terminal

adb push zergRush /data/local/tmp
adb shell chmod 755 /data/local/tmp/zergRush
#(if you've already rooted, or the next command says "permission denied", you may have to do:)
adb shell rm /data/local/tmp/boomsh /data/local/tmp/sh
adb shell /data/local/tmp/zergRush
for F in `seq 1 12`; do adb pull /dev/block/mmcblk0p$F; done
adb shell idme ? > nvram.txt

So I go into root mode in ubuntu with
sudo -i

My kindle fire is plugged in to my computer via USB, and the kindle fire's display shows the "You can now transfer files from your computer to Kindle" screen with the Disconnect button.
I execute the first command:
adb push zergRush /data/local/tmp

This returns:
565 KB/s (23060 bytes in 0.039s)

I execute the second command without error:
adb shell chmod 755 /data/local/tmp/zergRush

I execute the third command without error:
adb shell rm /data/local/tmp/boomsh /data/local/tmp/sh

Then I execute the next command:
adb shell /data/local/tmp/zergRush

And this returns:
[**] Zerg rush - Android 2.2/2.3 local root
[**] (C) 2011 Revolutionary. All rights reserved.

[**] Parts of code from Gingerbreak, (C) 2010-2011 The Android Exploid Crew.

[+] Found a GingerBread ! 0x00000118
[*] Scooting ...
[*] Sending 149 zerglings ...
[*] Sending 189 zerglings ...
[-] Hellions with BLUE flames !

Which indicates that the rooting has failed, so the next commands also fail. I'd appreciate any help.

According to a post of by ch4lky in XDA:

[-] Hellions with BLUE flames !

This output means that the exploit didn't crash vold, or didn't know
  it did. The reasons can be :

vuln[erability] has been patched
no debug info in the logs
no access to the logs
the buffer size is different on your device than on the others (<- can be fixed)

I did a quick read of zergrush's code; the log he's referring is located "/data/local/tmp/crashlog", you may want to look at that file to see if there is any useful info.
Since according to the thread you linked to, the exploit has been reported to work for Kindle Fire, the most likely possibility is either the vulnerability has been fixed in the latest update (the vulnerability already had a patch in upstream since November) or you had a weird version that have different buffer size than other Kindle Fires.

The ZergRush root was fixed in v6.2.1 of the Fire's firmware (strictly speaking, it was fixed in Android 2.3.7, I believe). Use BurritoRoot to get root access instead, then follow the rest of the guide to backup your data like normal.


text:
Desire HD Official Sense 3 update: Slate skin
I just updated my DHD to the official Sense 3 update.
Anyway, In Sense 2.1, I was using the sleek Slate skin. After updating, I went to "Personalize -> Skins" and chose "Get More"; Slate skin was not there. Also choosing different skins will produce "similar" looking skins (maybe with a little difference).
So, anyone knows how to get the old Slate skin back?

Can you once try Slate.apk from this xda thread.
He has created/ported many skins.

Isn't that an extract from the HTC Hub? Meaning the original Sense 2.1 Slate?

I'm not sure on that.


text:
Motorola Milestone is constantly firing touch events
Starting this morning, when I turn on my Motorola Milestones screen, it starts to constantly press random positions on the screen (starting applications, etc.) which makes it nearly impossible to use the phone. Most of the clicks are along the right side of the screen.
It started while I was reading an email.
Looks to me, like it is an hardware issue. But since I installed Cyanogen Mod 7 a month ago, maybe it could be related so some sort of touch sensitivity setting I don't know of yet?
Anyone experienced the same issues? Any idea how to solve it?
EDIT:
Seams like a Software issue.

First I wiped the cache, dalvic cache and reset to factory defaults. But the issue stayed.
Then I restored the last backup I had using Nandroid and now I have
the exact opposite:

The most right part of the screen is not touchable anymore.

At least that is better, than touching all the time. Still a little annoying.
Any idea how I can fix this?

I would also try re-flashing the ROM after doing a complete wipe in recovery.

There is a lengthy discussion about this on:
http://androidforums.com/droid-support-troubleshooting/87515-my-droids-touch-screen-going-crazy.html
The main point seems to relate to either oil and dirt covering the screen and/or heating up issues from dirt within internal components.
There are some suggested solutions such as carefully cleaning the screen and the speaker opening. It also seems to be strongly affected by moisture.

Water/sweat on top of the screen often caused problems like these for me. Switching off the display (standby) then wiping the screen thoroughly and switching it back on usually solved the problem however.

Heatening the phone with a hair dryer changed the behavior from sending touch events all the time to being not touchable on the right side. So I guess its moisture related. I now sent the device to Motorola. Hope they'll fix it. Thanks for your help.

@JochenJung no worries, best of luck!

I had this problem recently with my milestone 2. Unfortunately I had to send it to service. Now it works, but whole touch panel was replaced with a new one.
Just to clarify my problems: right column of touch panel (above search button, btw it didn't work as well) didn't work for more than one month. In more extreme weather conditions (temperature below 0 celcius) touch screen was pressed at random positions just like you have described.

This seems similar to an issue I had this summer: I ended up having to get a new phone.
Semi-Dead Zone on Touch Screen On Droid 1
Basically there was a horizontal bar worth of space on the screen that seemed to have random touches firing, and also in the same zone, it often wasn't registering my real touches. It was definitely a game of chance, and it was progressively getting worse. It got so bad I couldn't accept phone calls.
There was a comment on mine that suggested it was an electrical connection problem that could cause inconsistent contact -- which explains the spazzing out on my phone. This could very well be your problem, too.
I don't think it's a software issue. If you flashed a new image on there or restored a backup of before you started having issues and you're still having issues, that almost rules out software issue.
Though it's interesting that now you're having the opposite happen. But that's also similar to my problem, the fact that sometimes it'd go crazy with click misfires, and other times it'd be completely dead.
If it is indeed the same problem I had, unfortunately it's not really a user-servicable solution.. you're gonna have to either get a new phone or a warranty/insurance claim.
Good luck to you! Maybe all the issues people are having with their touch screens will convince the manufacturers to start using quality wiring. (Not really, but one can wish, right?)

This really doesn't sound like a software problem i'm afraid. Almost certainly hardware.
Your only choice really is to send it to the service center, as mentioned.
Sorry i couldn't be of more help.
P.S
Before sending it to the service center, put the stock rom back onto it!


text:
HTC Droid Incredible 2 Imei Location
what is the location of imei number for android 2.3.3 ?
my phone blacked out after I factory resetted my phone. And need to restore my imei back on my  htc droid incredible 2

go to settings -> about-phone-> phone identity-> IMSI is your IMEI number
An International Mobile Subscriber Identity or IMSI (play /ˈɪmziː/) is a unique identification associated with all GSM and UMTS network mobile phone users.
Each Android device is equipped with an IMEI or IMSI or MEID number (depending on the device's radio technology and Carrier) which uniquely identifies the handset. Below are listed a number of ways for you to retrieve such number.
The IMEI / IMSI / MEID number can be displayed on most phones by dialing the code *#06#
The IMEI / IMSI / MEID is also usually printed on the compliance plate under the battery

what I want is to restore it. I know my imei number ( saved when I first powered up device to prevent stolen device usage )

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1264021

badge of 8. not allowed to do so. on the other hand. I think a thank should be enugh. we are not competing in here. we are helping each other.
thanks again.

@PadmaKumar: Making someone go to another resource to get the answer to their question pretty much defeats the purpose of this site, not to mention linkrot. Can you please update your answer with the information found at that link. Do, of course, provide proper attribution.


text:
Are there any distributed-computing Apps for Android?
I've just found out about Boincoid: a port of the BOINC platform to the Android operating system as a platform for computing using volunteered resources (like SETI@home, Climateprediction.net, Rosetta@home, World Community Grid, etc). There isn't an actual app for Boincoid but just a zip package with a list of instructions dated from 2008.
Are there any other applications being developed for distributed-computing on Android?

I don't think so.  While you're ( they're ) on to something with the high amount of untapped CPU cycles accessible via Android ( and other mobile ) phones - the limiting factor tends to be that users don't want their batteries drained to compute fractals ( or something of the sort ).
If you were to create a service, however, that worked ONLY while the phones were charging, that would be a completely different matter.  However, doing so greatly reduces the time that would be available to tap those CPU cycles.
[Edit] - And further notes...
At one point I had investigated ( fairly heavily ) creating a distributed database system that would reside on mobile phones to support basic Apps that didn't want to rely on a REST service.  Ultimately, it came down to the lack of unlimited power that made it not worthwhile.  The goal still seems a bit of a holy grail in mobile application programming - create a distributed system that can take a service and database schema, and then add in a discovery and hash system to keep track of live nodes that had data.  Moving all of that information around could bog down a 3G connection - but a few years from now that won't be much of an issue I think.

Thanks for your answer. Battery life is obviously important. Quoting the FAQ from Boincoid: "We intend the Boincoid users to switch on the processing at night, when their phone is charging and idle. This is indeed to save battery time for daily usage. In future versions the client will recognize the charger state, and will switch on/off automatically."