text:
How to keep the size of the Dalvik cache small?
I have an issue with the Dalvik cache getting huge and occupying almost all of the space on my phone. I'm running Cyanogenmod 7.X. For the record, I have about 5-6 small applications on my phone (keyboard, voice choice, Gmail, etc.), but I'm showing about 187MB used and 9.7MB free on my internal storage in "Manage Applications".
I simple du -h -d 1 / reveals:
0   /sd-ext
0   /config
32.3M   /cache
0   /acct
3.5G    /mnt
120.8M  /system
0   /sys
112.0K  /sbin
0   /proc
178.3M  /data
0   /root
0   /dev
3.8G    /

Then, a du -h -d 1 /data reveals further:
550.5K  /data/tombstones
13.5K   /data/backup
10.5K   /data/dropbear
50.5K   /data/anr
4.0K    /data/secure
413.0K  /data/system
94.3M   /data/dalvik-cache
3.5K    /data/property
6.6M    /data/app
1.5M    /data/app-private
74.8M   /data/data
6.5K    /data/local
2.0K    /data/lost+found
46.5K   /data/misc
2.0K    /data/dontpanic
178.3M  /data

The "cache" is taking up 94.3MB of my internal phone storage?!? How does this make any sense? I did a cache wipe, but it was all regenerated on the next boot.
Another really weird but interesting thing is that if I do du -h -d 1 /data/data, I see that many of the apps I have moved to SD storage are still being stored on the phone!!!
34.5K   /data/data/com.google.android.carhome
31.0K   /data/data/com.paladinstudios.jimmypataya
33.0K   /data/data/com.touchtype.swiftkey
36.5K   /data/data/com.viber.voip
476.0K  /data/data/de.bigbyte.games.pickastick
21.5K   /data/data/com.android.keepass
50.5K   /data/data/com.threequbits.android.eightpen
12.5K   /data/data/com.google.android.apps.chrometophone
920.0K  /data/data/com.meganoid.engine
2.5K    /data/data/fishnoodle.jumpgate_free
2.5K    /data/data/com.androidemu.nes
48.5K   /data/data/digifit.virtuagym.client.android
49.5K   /data/data/com.rovio.angrybirdsseasons
641.0K  /data/data/com.googlecode.android_scripting
172.0K  /data/data/com.amazon.venezia
143.5K  /data/data/com.google.android.apps.docs
2.5K    /data/data/com.tumblr
26.5K   /data/data/de.android.telnet
5.0K    /data/data/com.capaci.android.flashlight
7.5K    /data/data/com.realarcade.DOJ
15.5K   /data/data/android.androidVNC
2.5K    /data/data/com.prey
12.0K   /data/data/org.mult.daap
13.0K   /data/data/org.transdroid
103.5K  /data/data/com.android.vending
30.5K   /data/data/com.google.android.talk
15.4M   /data/data/com.popcap.pvz
7.5K    /data/data/com.adobe.reader
29.0K   /data/data/gematria.calculator
4.0K    /data/data/com.android.setupwizard
161.5K  /data/data/com.glu.android.spacebros
4.0K    /data/data/com.google.android.onetimeinitializer
36.5K   /data/data/com.droidhen.game.donkeyjump
21.5K   /data/data/com.google.android.location
516.5K  /data/data/com.sherbert.delicious
9.5K    /data/data/com.google.android.voicesearch
4.0K    /data/data/com.google.android.apps.uploader
4.0K    /data/data/com.android.vending.updater
12.0K   /data/data/com.hg.gunsandgloryfree
4.0K    /data/data/com.google.android.latinimetutorial
198.0K  /data/data/com.google.android.gsf
11.0K   /data/data/com.google.android.street
5.0K    /data/data/com.bigtincan.android.adfree
73.5K   /data/data/com.google.android.googlequicksearchbox
176.0K  /data/data/com.bfs.ninjump
4.0K    /data/data/com.google.android.partnersetup
445.5K  /data/data/com.google.android.maps.mytracks
4.0K    /data/data/com.google.android.feedback
766.0K  /data/data/com.facebook.katana
9.5K    /data/data/com.google.android.syncadapters.contacts
9.5K    /data/data/com.google.android.syncadapters.calendar
7.0K    /data/data/pl.pawelbialecki.jedilightsaber
14.5K   /data/data/com.google.android.backup
127.0K  /data/data/com.google.android.apps.genie.geniewidget
2.0M    /data/data/com.shazam.encore.android
2.5K    /data/data/com.androidemu.gbc
4.0K    /data/data/com.android.cardock
1.2M    /data/data/com.rememberthemilk.MobileRTM
6.0K    /data/data/com.android.server.vpn
8.0K    /data/data/com.android.voicedialer
9.0K    /data/data/com.oktmwebsites.braslev
11.0K   /data/data/com.google.android.apps.tvremote
4.0K    /data/data/com.android.musicvis
423.5K  /data/data/com.google.android.apps.plus
7.5K    /data/data/com.tomanyz.lockWatch
15.0K   /data/data/com.android.providers.userdictionary
4.0K    /data/data/android.tts
2.5K    /data/data/Sidur.NosachSfarad.free
8.0K    /data/data/com.jyaif.pewpew
9.0K    /data/data/net.cactii.flash2
15.0K   /data/data/com.tmobile.thememanager
6.0K    /data/data/com.tmobile.themechooser
199.0K  /data/data/com.dropbox.android
233.5K  /data/data/com.android.providers.telephony
16.0K   /data/data/com.bbb.btr
5.0K    /data/data/org.nstamato.bansheeremote
6.5K    /data/data/com.android.systemui
2.5K    /data/data/com.adobe.flashplayer
38.5K   /data/data/com.noshufou.android.su
41.0K   /data/data/au.com.phil
744.5K  /data/data/de.hms.xconstructionfull
4.0K    /data/data/com.android.stk
2.5K    /data/data/com.lysolpionex.HomestarRunnerSoundboard
4.0K    /data/data/com.android.spare_parts
4.0K    /data/data/com.android.soundrecorder
2.5K    /data/data/com.androidemu.snes
48.0K   /data/data/com.android.providers.settings
204.5K  /data/data/com.android.settings
13.0K   /data/data/com.koushikdutta.rommanager
5.0K    /data/data/com.sec.ccl.csp.app.secretwallpaper.themetwo
6.5K    /data/data/com.voiceplusfree
7.0K    /data/data/com.nasc.widget.pixelartclock
4.0K    /data/data/com.android.protips
4.0K    /data/data/com.svox.pico
8.5K    /data/data/com.sportstracklive.stopwatch
2.9M    /data/data/com.google.android.apps.reader
14.5K   /data/data/com.android.phone
67.5K   /data/data/org.zwanoo.android.speedtest
5.5K    /data/data/com.replica.replicaisland
4.0K    /data/data/com.teamdouche.pacman
2.5K    /data/data/com.hg.gunsandglory
4.0K    /data/data/com.android.packageinstaller
42.0K   /data/data/com.squareup
7.0K    /data/data/com.android.music
12.0K   /data/data/com.android.mms
322.0K  /data/data/com.android.providers.media
34.5K   /data/data/org.adw.launcher
4.0K    /data/data/com.android.magicsmoke
4.0K    /data/data/com.android.wallpaper.livepicker
6.5K    /data/data/com.android.wallpaper
223.5K  /data/data/com.xyzmo.signature
33.5K   /data/data/com.a0soft.gphone.aCompass
18.0K   /data/data/com.android.inputmethod.latin
7.5K    /data/data/com.osao.themarbians
4.0K    /data/data/com.android.htmlviewer
320.0K  /data/data/org.onaips.vnc
2.7M    /data/data/com.cooliris.media
221.0K  /data/data/com.google.android.gm
4.0K    /data/data/org.openintents.filemanager
4.0K    /data/data/com.android.fm
7.5K    /data/data/com.publicobject.shush
47.0K   /data/data/com.android.email
4.0M    /data/data/com.googlecode.pythonforandroid
44.5K   /data/data/org.droidstack
11.0K   /data/data/com.android.providers.drm
591.5K  /data/data/com.keramidas.TitaniumBackup
1.2M    /data/data/com.google.android.apps.googlevoice
110.0K  /data/data/com.google.earth
4.0K    /data/data/com.android.providers.downloads.ui
40.5K   /data/data/com.android.providers.downloads
2.5K    /data/data/com.marvin.espeak
4.0M    /data/data/com.google.android.music
130.5K  /data/data/com.zeptolab.ctr
4.0K    /data/data/com.android.development
15.5K   /data/data/com.android.deskclock
4.0K    /data/data/com.android.defcontainer
21.0K   /data/data/com.miui.player
525.5K  /data/data/com.google.android.apps.books
4.0K    /data/data/com.bel.android.dspmanager
4.0K    /data/data/com.tmobile.theme.Cyanbread
1.5M    /data/data/com.android.providers.contacts
32.0K   /data/data/com.jawbone.companion
2.5K    /data/data/com.melodis.midomiMusicIdentifier
2.5K    /data/data/net.artifix.pomodroido.free
7.5K    /data/data/com.android.contacts
13.0K   /data/data/com.halfbrick.fruitninja
4.0K    /data/data/com.android.certinstaller
1.6M    /data/data/com.evernote
2.5K    /data/data/com.bw.picme.local
7.5K    /data/data/com.android.camera
417.5K  /data/data/com.android.providers.calendar
10.0K   /data/data/com.android.calendar
601.5K  /data/data/com.tencent.launcher
6.5K    /data/data/com.android.calculator2
4.0K    /data/data/com.cyanogenmod.CMWallpapers
7.0K    /data/data/com.cyanogenmod.updatenotify
570.0K  /data/data/com.google.android.apps.maps
2.0M    /data/data/com.subatomicstudios
9.0K    /data/data/com.cyanogenmod.stats
29.5K   /data/data/com.t4ils.tapandcrash
2.5K    /data/data/com.androidemu.gens
11.0K   /data/data/com.cyanogenmod.cmparts
7.9M    /data/data/com.android.browser
6.5K    /data/data/DoodleLander.DoodleLander
722.0K  /data/data/ca.jamdat.flight.scrabblefree
13.5K   /data/data/com.android.bluetooth
31.0K   /data/data/com.androidemu.gba
243.5K  /data/data/com.popcap.peggle
4.0K    /data/data/com.android.providers.applications
4.0K    /data/data/com.tmobile.theme.Androidian
4.0K    /data/data/jackpal.androidterm2
2.5K    /data/data/gabriel.metronome
6.0K    /data/data/com.android.providers.subscribedfeeds
25.0K   /data/data/com.tuneme.tuneme
16.5K   /data/data/com.android.launcher
12.1M   /data/data/com.swype.android.installer
7.5K    /data/data/inediblesoftware.shotgun
61.5K   /data/data/com.silvertree.cordy
36.5K   /data/data/com.pandora.android
45.5K   /data/data/com.google.android.youtube
44.0K   /data/data/com.google.android.stardroid
2.5K    /data/data/org.wordpress.android
70.0K   /data/data/com.mint
1.4M    /data/data/com.netflix.mediaclient
56.5K   /data/data/com.rovio.angrybirdsrio
267.5K  /data/data/com.rovio.angrybirds
13.0K   /data/data/com.google.android.apps.translate
2.5K    /data/data/org.transdroid.search
421.5K  /data/data/com.twitter.android
171.5K  /data/data/com.google.android.apps.unveil
543.5K  /data/data/com.swype.android.inputmethod
11.0K   /data/data/com.storybird.spacebusterlite
17.0K   /data/data/com.gindin.zmanim.android
8.5K    /data/data/com.dikkar.irecord
22.5K   /data/data/com.gotow.hexdefense
46.5K   /data/data/com.mybo.tetris
74.8M   /data/data

In short, I have no idea what's going on, but I've ensured that almost no applications are living on my internal storage and I'm still getting "Phone Memory Low" in the notification bar. What gives?

See also http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/60534/wiping-dalvik-cache-dalvik-cache-of-uninstalled-apps

/data/dalvik-cache contains optimized bytecode of each installed app.  /data/data contains settings and preferences of each installed app.  Neither of these two locations are touched when you move the app to SD Card using Gingerbread's built-in methods.  That's a limitation of Android's implementation of moving apps to SD.  CyanogenMod 7 allows you to move more apps than the stock ROM, but on phones with limited storage you will still eventually run out of space on internal memory.
Since you are rooted and already running CM7, take a look at S2E.  This app allows you to move both /data/data and data/dalvik-cache to your SD Card.  The only prerequisite is that your SD Card must be re-partitioned to add a second Ext2/3/4 partition, after the main FAT32 one.  There are many partition tools available (free and paid) that can do this for you.  I personally use PartitionWizard's MiniTool Partition Wizard Home Edition (Windows, freeware).  It is also recommended to use a stand-alone USB SD Card reader for repartitioning as opposed to built-in readers on most laptops, since those tend to not properly write partition tables to SD Cards.
P.S. Don't forget to back up the contents of the SD Card before attempting to re-partition it, since it will wipe all of your data from it.

Now if I can only find a way to free up enough space on my phone to install the app...

Uninstall Angry Birds!  ;)

Touché. Now, if only I would have backed up my SD card before I partitioned it. I hear the sound of a wasted day whizzing by...

Ouch.  I didn't think to include that bit in my answer.  Better edit it and add that.

All things considered, is this really an improvement? You might have freed up some RAM, but won't apps run slower since even the "optimized cache" is stored on the SD card?

@briankb depending on the rating of your SD Card, there is definitely a trade-off here.  Yes, you might notice that apps start a bit slower than usual.  Once they are in memory though, there would be no difference in speed while they are running.  On the flip side - you can install a much greater number of apps without running out if internal storage.

I think you should strongly consider using Link2SD from the Android Market. That should help you with a lot of this!


text:
Android Packet data shortcut
I have a Samsung Galaxy Mini running Android 2.3.3 Gingerbread. In the previous version Froyo (2.2.1) when I held down power button I got in that menu a shortcut to enable packet data. In Gingerbread I couldn't make this shortcut appear.
Is there anything I can make to add this shortcut there? Because it's quite annoying to keep accessing Settings -> Wireless & networks -> Mobile networks -> Enable packet data.

how did you install the gingerbread on your galaxy mini...The KIES software says that there is no upgrade available for my S5570.

Using a ROM found here: http://simple-blog.eu/cum-faci-upgrade-la-android-2-3-3-gingerbread-pentru-samsung-galaxi-mini/ Unfortunately it's in Romanian.

It's impossible to add any custom shortcuts to Power button menu. Looks like you have installed some custom ROM. If that is the case, you could also try to find the ROM which has this feature embedded. Here's the list of custom ROMs for you phone:
XDA-Developers: all samsung galaxy mini custom roms!
The ROMs that are based on CyanogenMod (CM) have nice feature called Notification Power Widget, it can be customized and Mobile Data switch could be added:

If you don't want to change the ROM, you still have some options:

As mentioned in another comment to your question, you could use Power Widget, also Android Market contains lots of widgets specially for Data switching.
Also you can simply automate the actions you want to do with earlier mentioned Tasker or Llama, which is free alternative to the Tasker. With this apps you could set Mobile Data to be turned on or off depending on events like your location, or, screen on/off, etc.

I am using now APNdroid. It's a cheap and simple application which cuts the packet data connection.

I used to do this using tasker and a plugin. It's a cost option, but it will work.
Tasker allows you to create widgets to tasks, so it doesn't have to be event based.
The plugin can be found here
Tasker (if you're unfamiliar with it) can be found here

This widget might help.  It has an airplane mode switch and "2G/3G" (I'm not sure if that's switching from one to another or includes switching both off).  There should be similar apps to do what you want if that one doesn't.

Maybe it's the best thing I can do. "Unfortunately, Android does not allow other applications to change the 2G/3G preference directly." It behaves like a shortcut to "Enable packet data".

@Daniel Ah, too bad. A one-click process would be better.

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


text:
Command to install app from phone?
I'd like to SSH into my phone, download an APK, and install it remotely. Is there a command available on the phone that would allow me to do this?
EG:
wget localhost/file.apk
android_install file.apk

Need to automate an install, as I just accidentally wiped my SD card and everything on it. :(

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/7076240/install-an-apk-file-from-command-prompt

In adb shell or terminal emulator (and most likely over SSH) you can use the pm utility to install apps.  The command is:

pm install /sdcard/app1.apk

The following are the switches of pm:
usage: pm [list|path|install|uninstall]
       pm list packages [-f] [-d] [-e] [-u] [FILTER]
       pm list permission-groups
       pm list permissions [-g] [-f] [-d] [-u] [GROUP]
       pm list instrumentation [-f] [TARGET-PACKAGE]
       pm list features
       pm list libraries
       pm path PACKAGE
       pm install [-l] [-r] [-t] [-i INSTALLER_PACKAGE_NAME] [-s] [-f] PATH
       pm uninstall [-k] PACKAGE
       pm clear PACKAGE
       pm enable PACKAGE_OR_COMPONENT
       pm disable PACKAGE_OR_COMPONENT
       pm setInstallLocation [0/auto] [1/internal] [2/external]

The list packages command prints all packages, optionally only
those whose package name contains the text in FILTER.  Options:
  -f: see their associated file.
  -d: filter to include disbled packages.
  -e: filter to include enabled packages.
  -u: also include uninstalled packages.

The list permission-groups command prints all known
permission groups.

The list permissions command prints all known
permissions, optionally only those in GROUP.  Options:
  -g: organize by group.
  -f: print all information.
  -s: short summary.
  -d: only list dangerous permissions.
  -u: list only the permissions users will see.

The list instrumentation command prints all instrumentations,
or only those that target a specified package.  Options:
  -f: see their associated file.

The list features command prints all features of the system.

The path command prints the path to the .apk of a package.

The install command installs a package to the system.  Options:
  -l: install the package with FORWARD_LOCK.
  -r: reinstall an exisiting app, keeping its data.
  -t: allow test .apks to be installed.
  -i: specify the installer package name.
  -s: install package on sdcard.
  -f: install package on internal flash.

The uninstall command removes a package from the system. Options:
  -k: keep the data and cache directories around.
after the package removal.

The clear command deletes all data associated with a package.

The enable and disable commands change the enabled state of
a given package or component (written as "package/class").

The getInstallLocation command gets the current install location
  0 [auto]: Let system decide the best location
  1 [internal]: Install on internal device storage
  2 [external]: Install on external media

The setInstallLocation command changes the default install location
  0 [auto]: Let system decide the best location
  1 [internal]: Install on internal device storage
  2 [external]: Install on external media

For example, you can force the app to install directly to the external storage (Froyo/Gingerbread style.)
P.S. The wget utility should be available via BusyBox on CM7.  If not, you can always install it via Android Market.

This is exactly what I'm looking for. pm does exist at /system/bin/pm, but unfortunately over SSH (even as root) it doesn't do anything. Running any pm command produces no output. Is there something I'm doing wrong? It does work in terminal emulator, just not over SSH for some reason :(

I've had PM work as root from adb in CM6; beyond that I am unsure.

May I ask what is the reason you prefer SSH over ADB shell?

@Chahk: adb only works via the USB cable, doesn't it? And SSH can be over a wireless network. Also, ssh is there everywhere, but adb has to be installed.

Error: java.lang.SecurityException: Permission Denial: runInstallCreate from pm command asks to run as user -1 but is calling from user 11; this requires android.permission.INTERACT_ACROSS_USERS_FULL

I'd suggest you plug your phone into a pc with the sdk (or at least adb) installed and in debugging mode. After this, write a script that goes through your apps and installs them via adb, e.g. adb install x:\path\to\app1.apk.

There's no native utility on the phone to do this?

No, since most apps just copy their .apk file to /data/app. You could try copying all your apks there and then rebooting (note that this needs root, but I assume from the cyanogenmod tag that you're rooted).

Now that is something I can do over SSH, cp * /data/app && reboot

note that the cp command is not available in stock Android (i.e. non-custom ROM), so if you're not using Cyanogen you may need to (ab)use the cat command.

Actually, on the phone there is such a command.  pm install /sdcard/app1.apk will do the same thing as adb install and can be executed in adb shell, terminal emulator, and most likely over SSH.  Take a look at the output of pm for more options. There is even a switch to force the app to install directly to external storage (Gingerbread style).

I am using the same method and yes SSH is great! But it seems when you SSH to Android it gets a different shell than sh so if you put sh in front of the command it should work.
Here's an example: sh /system/bin/pm install app1.apk

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


text:
How can I flush the DNS Cache?
How can I clear my DNS cache on my android phone? (Droid3, Gingerbread, rooted to be specific)
Ideally I'm looking for a command to run through a terminal emulator, something similar to
ipconfig /flushdns

On a windows machine.
What's the Linux version of this?

Do you need to do this for a system app, third party app or your app?

Third party I guess? I need it for when I ping a server via Terminal Emulator.

Please update your title to reflect that you want a CLI-based answer. This is ranking in Google and 99% of people searching this title do not have root or CLI skills.

Any update here? as @PJBrunet said, having root is not the usual case, moreover current phones do not allow to remove battery. I looking for flushing the DSN because doing it fixed my "ip failure" on windows, it is happening the same in my phone, but there is no shell on Android.

On a typical Linux system the cache is cleared by running /etc/init.d/nscd restart, but at least my ROM doesn't use nscd to cache DNS. You can check if yours does, but I doubt it. I've seen suggestions that clearing the brower cache would clear DNS cache too, but one sure way is to do a hard reboot (shutdown, remove battery for 30s, reattach battery and boot).

All of my googling also brings up the "hard reboot" suggestion.

I'm downvoting because the answer requires root and/or assumes shell access which is unrealistic for most Android users. The rest of the answer did not solve my problem. Also I believe Matthew Read should reconsider locking the question because this is absolutely not a "done deal." DNS is extremely complex and there will be more legitimate answers from people without Android accounts here yet, I'm an example of that. FWIW I do have 10+ reputation and still could not answer the question.

@PJBrunet To be accurate, you have 1 rep and 100 rep from association bonus, which does not count since you haven't earned it on this site. See What is a "protected" question? for more details. As for the question, I'll unprotect it for now.

Addresses are cached for 600 seconds (10 minutes) by default. Failed lookups are cached for 10 seconds. From everything I've seen, there's nothing built in to flush the cache. This is apparently a reported bug in Android because of the way it stores DNS cache. Clearing the browser cache doesn't touch the DNS, the "hard reset" clears it because it simply times out.
Can we ask the underlying reason for needing to clear the DNS cache? Perhaps there's another solution that's missed because we're not looking at the bigger picture.

Not sure about the OP, but I have a use case where my home network serves addresses like server.home.mydomain.com, but my ISP resolves *.mydomain.com (for any value of "*" this is not already mapped) to www.mydomain.com if my phone is on 3G/4G, so I'm sometimes unable to access my home network until the cache times out.

Looks like the forced 10-minute caching is fixed in JB — see this commit. For older releases the Java cache behavior could be tuned by networkaddress.cache.ttl and networkaddress.cache.negative.ttl in build.prop.

Fwiw, there are still some (perhaps different) DNS issues even in 4.3 - tablets on wifi may not get an IP address for names that Linux and Windows machines (on the network that hosts the wifi) can resolve.

The only way to do this in Android is to do a hard reboot. The necessary command-line tools are not normally available, however in my tests a hard reboot has always done the trick for me (Galaxy Nexus, and HTC Desire, various ROMs).
This is a pain, but it is quicker than the 10min cache timeout.

How does one perform this?

Hold down the power button
Choose "Power off"
Allow phone to fully shut down
Remove battery and wait 30s
Return battery
Power phone back on.

In my experience removing the battery is not necessary, but some have reported it doesn't work if you miss this step.

Removing the battery is nonsense. Reboot works. I suspect that the additional time for that simply allows some external DNS cache to time out.

There're also apps like Internet Booster promising to "clear DNS cache" (amongst other things). I didn't try it out myself, and furthermore there seems no way to do only that (just one "optimize" button which "applies improvements"); also its effects might differ between devices (says the app's description) -- but it might be better than a reboot. Btw: while not mentioning root as requirement, it might still be needed.
There are several "similar apps" listed on Google Play -- but be aware that most of them include Airpush ads and/or want excessive permissions, which is why I didn't name them here.

Another possible solution (not tested by myself) I found at MadPC, seemingly quoting user8522's answer before stating:

The last option but most intensive on the user themselves unless they want to just wait the update out: Have your users go into settings -> applications -> Network Location -> Clear data

Another short howto mentions a different easy way to flush DNS (again, I didn't test this myself): Simply switch to airplane mode (oops, no network?) and back (ah, there it is) should do the trick. Might sound stupid, but I could imagine when entering airplane mode Android does something similar to /etc/init.d/networking stop, which has a DNS flush as side-effect.

A very easy solution was supplied by dtumaykin in the comments below: simply switching to airplane-mode and back might already do it (of course with the side-effect of the network going down for a couple of seconds ;) Though it might not work on some devices, it's worth a try: no extra installs, and easily performed even by n00bs.
If anybody tried one of those solutions, confirmation (or the opposite) is surely welcome :)

There are shell commands ndc resolver flushdefaultif and ndc resolver flushif wlan0; they require root. There is also NetworkManagementService.flushDefaultDnsCache() method, which required just CHANGE_NETWORK_STATE before JB, but then was locked down to CONNECTIVITY_INTERNAL. So there apparently was a hackish way to clean DNS cache without root (after build.prop tuning to kill the Java-level cache), but it will not work in JB.

Thanks for the additional information, @SergeyVlasov ! Do you know if any of the methods you mentioned gets triggered by the two proposed solutions mentioned last in my answer (or if they do work, but for a different reason)?

Airplane mode on-off worked out for me. Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini and CM12.1.

I can't answer because Matthew Read locked the question. Please slap him for me :-) Hard reboot did not work for me, airplane mode did not work, clearing "location" (as per answer) did not work, waiting hours did not work either. In the past, I've simply solved this by closing the browser tab and opening a new tab. There is a "no root" 8.8.8.8 app (Google DNS) however, I can't grant VPN access because I already have a VPN app that I paid for. The solution for me was change the VPN's "virtual location" setting or the solution was to stop & start my  VPN. Assuming my VPN has its own DNS cache.

@PJBrunet I won't slap a mod (too dangerous, he might close my account ;) and besides, my arms are not long enough to reach oversea). But gaining 10 rep isn't too hard (ask a good question getting 2 upvotes, or write an answer getting 1 upvote); with that, come back here and write your answer :) Thanks for sharing!

@Izzy Yes, it's the painful part of StackExchange. All the rules. Comment conversations are frowned upon. In any case, the valuable thing is having a good answer to help people, which I can't contribute. My "VPN" answer is solid and arguably better than the accepted answer which requires root.

@PJBrunet then go post it, Matthew somehow felt the slap and removed the barrier :)

In modern versions of Android there is an option to clear Chrome's DNS cache under chrome://net-internals/#dns

didn't work for me, still had to do a hard reboot

In my case, I just had one domain name that I needed flushed. Suggestions such as toggling Airplane Mode, performing a hard reboot, or the actions in chrome://net-internals/#dns did not work for me. Instead I temporarily changed my WiFi settings to use Google's nameserver at 8.8.8.8.
These are the steps I took:

Settings -> WiFi -> tap current connection and note the current IP address
Long click current connection -> Modify network
Check "Advanced settings"
Change "IP settings" to "static"
Set "IP address" to the current IP from the first step
Set "Gateway" to your IP address but with .1 as the 4th number (This is just a guess. If you know it is something different, use that)
Set "DNS 1" to 8.8.8.8

After these steps, when I pinged the domain name in the console it resolved to the correct IP address and seemed to write over the old cached one. Presumably visiting the domain in a browser will have the same effect.
When I went back to WiFi and set "IP settings" back to "DHCP", the correct domain continued to resolve to the current IP address.
This is on a Sony Xperia Z3 running Android 5.1.1

On a Adroid 5.1 Mobile which has took wrong DNS as is switched to much between two WLAN;(
A question Mark on a WLAN Connexion.
i did not want to restore my phone as i did it once..
Engelsiz: DNS Changer fixed it;)


text:
Hide Facebook friend's events from calendar
I added my Facebook account to the calendar to sync up my Facebook friend's birthdays in my calendar. But along with the birthdays, few useless events also got added automatically. Like if my friend who is a football fan, is attending a Football match somewhere, that event is displaying in "MY CALENDAR".
It is very annoying to see my friend's events in my calendar. How do I stop that?

Has your friend invited you to the event? I've never seen my friends' events in my calendar, only when they've invited me too. For these events you need to remove the event by going to the event's facebook page, scrolling all the way down and clicking the "Remove from My events" link in the footer. Facebook won't sync the RSVP info for some reason, so "Hide declined events" in the calendar options won't hide events that you're not attending (which is very annoying by the way).

The way to solve this requires you to go onto the web version of facebook. From the newsfeed page, select 'events' from the column on the left. On the events page, select list and press the cross in the right hand corner of the event you want removed. Then on your phone, open calendar and press the menu button, select sync and it should remove the event. For some reason, facebook doesn't seem to inform your calendar of declined events, so removal is essential.

Depending on the calendar app on your phone, you may be able to do this easily. I'm using a Samsung Captivate with Froyo, and can hide Facebook events by doing the following:

Open Calendar
Menu > More > Settings
Calendars
Check on or off the various calendars you want to display. On mine i have Phone, Gmail and Facebook. Unchecking the Facebook one removes these events from my calendar.

In addition to which phone and calendaring app you use, this may also be affected by how you sync your Facebook calendar, via the official Facebook app or via some other 'social' software.
If you give details about your phone, calendar and social software being used, someone may be able to give more detailed and/or directly applicable help.

Note that this hides all events from Facebook, including your own.

Good point to make, should be clear about that. So while this would work, it wouldn't be the ideal solution if you do have your own events in Facebook that you want to see in your Android calendar.


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How to install LG Optimus One PC Suite on Mac?
For the LG Optimus One the PC suite and USB driver are all Windows-based. My home computer is an IMac.
Are there versions of these downloaads that will work with my Mac?

related question: http://android.stackexchange.com/q/6034/482

Are you trying to do something specific? Sync contacts, transfer media, update firmware?

Thank you for response.At this stage I am only trying to follow procedure of connecting my P 500 to the computer as per the manual. Ultimately this is to access updates. I did find some similar posts from mac users. Oh, my contacts all sync-ed automatically from my gmail and I did work out via unbugging usb and mounting sd card how to transfer music. My concern is that this is piecemeal and my real issue is on updates.


text:
Android Market auto restore apps not working
After some problems I had to restore my phone. Before doing it I had enabled the option of google's security copy. Now I've linked my google account and market does nothing, it doesn't restore apps. So I've decided to enter the market through the browser and in "My market account" I could only see the three apps that are native to the phone (youtube, gmail and google maps). How can I get all the apps I had before?
Thanks,
Diego

Did you look in your "library"? https://market.android.com/mylibrary I recently did a factory reset and I can see all of the apps that I'd previously had installed, not just the ones I've only just gotten around to.

Yes yes!!! They are there, thanks. Please post this as an answer.

Sure. Done. (I was happy to find them there, too.)

Did you look in your "Library"?
I recently did a factory reset and I can see all of the apps that I'd previously had installed, not just the ones I've only just gotten around to.

this is cool, i didn't know you could do this! is there any way to do it from the phone market?

Unfortunately, if you didn't pay for them, i don't believe the market saves any record of your downloads. If they cost money, the should show up under My apps in the market after a fresh system wipe, but free apps should be backed up with Titanium Backup or Astro File Manager, both allow you to simply reinstall your apps at any time.

I would add AppBrain (https://market.android.com/details?id=com.appspot.swisscodemonkeys.apps ) to that list.  Combined with Fast Web Installer (https://market.android.com/details?id=com.appspot.swisscodemonkeys.apppusher ) it allows you to create a list of your apps either by syncing from the phone, or via their web site.  You can then re-install them onto your device with one click.

@jlehenbauer Actually, Market saves your installed apps, because when I got my Galaxy Tab 10.1 it automatically installed the ~80 apps I had on my Galaxy S. But this has never happened then I've wiped the phone (for example when flashing). Maybe it only works for new devices that use the same Google account?

Yes, I know about that apps but they need root access and my reinstall was made by tech service, if I rooted my phone to backup they wouldn't take it.

cool! i didn't know about @Al's solution, i like it. And only Titanium Backup requires root, Astro doesn't.


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Motorola Xoom "Complete action using" dialog won't display to select an activity
When generating an intent in an application that is supposed to create the dialog popup to choose an activity to complete the action, it simply doesn't show.  I get a darkened screen and no dialog.
For example: click on a YouTube link should popup a dialog asking to use Browser or YouTube (if no default is set).  When I click on this link, the screen darkens like it wants to show a dialog, but it simply doesn't.

Posting this as a self Q&A because it was hard to find info about it and I'm sure it'll happen to someone else.

Solution: apparently there is a bug with this in Android 3.2.  Rotating your Xoom will fix it.


text:
Google Voice: There was an issue refreshing your inbox?
Using Android 2.2.1 (Version.2.3.340.MB810.Verizon.en.US) on a Droid X.  I just updated Google Voice to version 0.4.2.34 yesterday and now I continually get an error message that appears as a notification:
Google Voice
There was an issue refreshing your inbox

Clicking on the notification takes me to Google Voice settings.  I have powered off my phone and turned it back on and the behavior persists.  How do I fix this?

Have you tried clearing the app data?

From Al Everett's comment, I decided to try signing out of the application (which gives a warning about deleting all data) and signing back in, figuring that would be a less extreme step than going to manage applications clear data (although maybe it does the same thing). It seems to have fixed the problem

I had to clear app data to fix this.  HTC Espresso (T-Mo MyTouch slide)

All I did was go to menu | settings | applications | Google Voice and selected Force Stop. It cleared the issue without deleting the data.


text:
Touch input does not work right when phone is plugged in
Basically touch input either doesn't work at all, or works erratically.  This includes the the lock screen too.  It happens both plugged in to a USB port or to the outlet.
I've had this problem on two phones, and HTC Nexus One and and Samsung Nexus S.
Does anyone have any idea about what the cause of this and if I can do anything to fix it?  Have you seen this problem?

Never heard of it. My Droid works just fine when plugged in to a USB port as well as an AC outlet.

The only reason I can think of for this happening on two phones is that you have a buggy app installed on both, although I don't know how an app could do that.

I've seen this on the Droid X.  Touch input can sometimes be sluggish or non-responsive.

related: http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/9416/no-touchscreen-response-when-charging

are you using original charger?

I had the same problem with the HTC Nexus One and it was directly related to heat. Whenever the phone got too hot the touch screen would flake out. Charging the phone makes it heat up, the worst time for me was when it was in the car dock, heat from charging and from the screen being on all the time. When ever it did this all I had to do was hold it in front of the AC vent for 15 - 30 seconds and the screen would work normally.

Holding your phone infront of AC is bad for the phone screen and IC. Let it cool normally or one can remove the charger from phone, use it and again put it back to charging. But yes, heating is the issue. This normally happens also when you phone is overcharged.

@Lucky I did this to confirm that it was the heat causing the problem more than anything else. But I am interested to hear your theory on how cooling it off with the AC vent would cause damage to the screen or the IC.

All I'm saying is when your phone is hot(around 50°C) the moisture from AC vent condenses and might form water droplets inside your screen when exposed directly. Read this too http://www.userbytes.com/how-cold-weather-can-affect-electronics

I have encountered this problem with my Samsung Galaxy II S, but only when I am using a third party charger of dubious quality.  The hardware buttons continue to work but the touchscreen becomes unresponsive.  The issue does not occur with the OEM charger.

My friend also had similar problem with Motorola Milestone third party chargers.

I had this issue with my Droid Incredible. Only did it with a generic charger never with the OEM charger.

I've had this issue happening with three different devices - Motorola Backflip, Motorola Defy and Genesis GT-1230. The cause is always cheap third-party chargers -- and in my case, it works fine when plugged to the computer via USB cable (it's an original Motorola cable).


text:
change icons on sensation lock screen
I've just got a HTC sensation and I've worked out how to change the icons on the home screens, but is there a way to change the icons on the lock screen?

Yes, this is possible without apps. The icons on the lockscreen are the same ones that you chose for the home screen:
Here you see the icons I originally had on both screens:

By changing the apps on my home screen adjacent to all apps, this change is mirrored on the lock screen:

To change the icons adjacent to all apps on your home screen, long-press them until you can move them around then drop the old icons either into the trash can (that appears when you long press) or into a free space on another part of the home screen.  You can then replace it with an icon of your choice.

There are various lock screen apps on the market, but so far the best I've seen is WidgetLocker, very customizable and in my opinion worth the small price.


text:
How Can I Record Text-To-Speech Output
Android has a Text-To-Speech engine called PicoTTS.
Is there any way to have it read a file and save the output to an audio file (instead of routing the audio to the headset or speakers) without programming a custom app myself?

UPDATE: The OS has a synthesizeToFile() method ... I'm just looking for an app that uses it instead of developing one on my own.

Make sure your default Text-to-Speech engine is PicoTTS (from settings). Install and start a sound recording app (there are many in Play Store). Send it to background and use Speaking Pad.


text:
My Notification bar won't roll up ?
I am using Motorola Defy Android 2.2. But I am facing a problem with touch screen. The buttons at very lower end of the screen don't work i.e touch at the very lower end don't work. That's why after pulling downing the notification bar I am unable to roll it up back. I am even unable to use apps that have small buttons at very end of the screen. To use them I have to rotate the phone.
Please help me out.

Sounds like a hardware problem. How old is the device? Any chance for a warrantee repair?

Its merely two months old.

I think you need to take it back to where you bought it and get a replacement.

Like Al said, it's most likely a hardware problem, but to address the title question: you can roll the notification area up with the back button.

Yeah doing the same thing. But to use buttons in that area has become difficult.


text:
HTC Desire Z without Android Market?
I bought a HTC Desire Z from UAE (United Arab Emirates) country. Surprisingly, there isn't the Android Market in the Applications list! I tried to install Market manually, but it crashes and terminates. Without Market I'm unable to install new applications or upgrade existing ones.
Do you have any idea? Thanks.

It looks like the Market is currently blocked in UAE and this has nothing to do with your phone. It may become available soon but I've not found anything with a date. I have seen that it's not so much the government blocking it as an inability to bring banks on-board.
This thread suggests that you can get around it with a dial code, but it looks like it needs a hard reset. There are also other questions here about installing the app manually, like: How to install android market app manually?

I have to root my phone, finally! :D

I've installed cyanogenmod 7. It's GREAT! :D

every Android phone with android 2.2 OS must comes with  android market!.if don't have google market that may your phone isn't a smart phone!it just only a common phone with MTK OS

This is the exact reason that I ask this question! ;)

This is incorrect. There are phones that run Android that do not ship with Google Applications.


text:
Automatically dim screen at specific times?
Waking up in the morning to a very bright screen is no fun. I'd rather the screen be dimmer in my dark bedroom when I wake up. While I could manually change the brightness before going to bed and changing it once I get up, it's too much bother.
How can I automate changing the screen brightness based on the time of day?

My Pixel by Google has a setting to remove a lot of the blue from my screen at sundown, and restore it at sunrise. So I guess the real answer for this old question is just to wait until I could afford a flagship phone.

If you don't mind paying a few bucks, I highly recommend Tasker.  This automation utility allows you to set up many built-in (and some 3rd-party app) Android actions based on various parameters, including time of day.
In Tasker you will need to create 2 separate profiles, and to each add 2 actions.  1st action will be identical in both profiles - disabling the Auto Brightness.  Second one will be similar - a time-based action to change the display brightness, with time of day and brightness level being the differences.

Start Tasker and tap the + button on the bottom o the main screen to create a new profile.  Give it a descriptive name, such as "Brightness Down" for example.
Choose the "Time" context on the presented menu.
For the "From:" option select the time of day you wish to have brightness lowered.
Un-check the "To:" option, and tap the green "Accept" button.
On the "Task Selection" dialog tap the "New Task" button and name it "Lower Screen Brightness" and tap the "Accept" button.
Tap the "+" button to add an action, select "Display" category, select the "Auto Brightness" action, select the "Off" option on the "Set" drop-down, and press the green "Accept" button.
Tap the "+" button to add another action, select "Display" category, elect the "Display Brightness" action, set the desirable low level (20 being the lowest recommended setting), ensure that both "Ignore Current Level" and "Immediate Effect" options are checked, and tap the green "Accept" button.
Tap the green "Accept" button on the "Task Edit / ..." screen.
On the main screen tap the "Brightness Down" profile once, then tap on its wrench button, and select the "Clone" option.
Tap the newly-cloned profile, tap its wrench button, select the "Rename" option and name it "Brightness Up".
Tap on the clock icon, select the "Edit" option, change the "From:" time to the time of day when you'd like brightness increased, and tap the green "Accept" button.
Now tap on the task itself (name you gave it in step 5), select "Rename" option, name it "Increase Screen Brightness", and tap the green "Accept" button.
Tap the task again, and select the "Edit" option.
Tap on the "Display Brightness" action, set the Level to a higher setting, and tap the green "Accept" button.
Tap the green "Accept" button on the "Task Edit / ..." screen.
Ensure that on the main screen, the button on bottom-right reads "On", and exit the Tasker app.

You should now be all set.

Lifehacker's instructions are a bit simpler, but achieve the same thing.

Not sure what phone you've got but most of the higher end Android phones have light sensors, and you can set the screen to adjust its brightness automatically depending on the ambient light at the time.
If you've got the Power Bar widget on your home screen (its one of the built-in Android widgets since Donut) just tap the far-right brightness icon until it shows an "A" for automatic brightness.
Alternatively go into Settings -> Display -> Brightness and tick the "Automatic brightness" option.

My phone has no ambient light sensor and I had exactly the same problem. I've been using AutomateIT, it is an application of similar vein to Tasker/Locale, except that there is a free version as well as a paid version.
It can change brightness settings based on triggers, such as time of the day, or whether you're connected to your home Wifi. The paid version allows you to combine multiple triggers into composite rules using AND/OR boolean logic.


text:
How can I read epub or mobi files with Kindle?
I have purchased some ebooks which I have received in both EPUB and MOBI format.
Can I read these MOBI or EPUB files with the Kindle application ?
I copied the MOBI files into the kindle folder, but they do not show up in my Kindle main screen.

I will answer my own question in the hope in helps others: I just had to reboot my device, and now when I start Kindle the MOBI files which I had copied to the Kindle folder are present in the main screen.
So obviously the Kindle application must be restarted when you add ebooks to its folder (without downloading them via the Kindle store).
UPDATE
Added the Kindle folder:
/sdcard/kindle

Force closing and/or clearing the data, does not bring up an EPUB file I just copied to the folder. Will let you know after some more testing.
UPDATE 2
For those interested: the Calibre software, can convert any e-book between numerous formats (including EPB and MOBI). So, if the EPUB format is not recognized, just convert it to MOBI and use the converted file.

You might also need to force a re-scan of the SD Card, so that the app recognizes new media in its folder.

Does this also work for the ePubs? Can you also confirm the path in your answer to the specific Kindle folder where you put them, so it gives others a starting reference?

This worked for me with the .mobi file in the /kindle folder

I was missing everything but force closing and relaunching the app, thanks.

For my Nexus 5x which doesn't have an SD card, I needed to create the folder /storage/emulated/0/kindle and place my .mobi files there.  Opened up Kindle app, and they are there!

If you are wondering where to put those .mobi files (or perhaps any other files that your android kindle app can read) if your Kindle app is located in the external storage (external sd - card), just put them at:
Android/data/com.amazon.kindle/files/amzn1.account.x
x: is a 28 characters long string that will be different for each user

As of 2018, Kindle did not recognise epub. So I used a web site to convert it to a mobi. But it still did not recognise it. I remembered that apps now needs runtime permissions to access the virtual SD card. So, it the app properties, I gave it the storage permission, and restarted Kindle. Now, it worked.

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


text:
Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 - If I apply the update and install TouchWiz, will it hurt me?
I have a Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet. I love it. I think Google's default honeycomb UI is fine, but Samsung wanted to improve upon it with their own UI called "TouchWiz". Following an annoying trend however, they released their device before their software was finished and promised to provide the new UI and software enhancements in a future update.
Well, that update is now available, and my tablet has been nagging me for more than a week to apply it. I keep hitting "postpone". If the update includes bug fixes or improved functionality, then I might be better off applying it. But I'm a bit worried about performance. It seems to me that alternative home screen managers, Windows explorer shells, browser toolbars, and other UI "enhancements" available on the various platforms tend to bog down the system, put their little hooks into everything, and just generally get in the way. I'm also worried that applying this patch might disable something in the vanilla functionality that I need. I haven't heard that that's the case, but it's not unusual for manufacturers to turn off functions that the vanilla Android OS has built in.
So, what I'd like to know is, will applying the software update for the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 cause any issues that I'd want to know about? Will it hurt performance? Will it take up tons of system resources? Will it disable features I need? I'd love to see a post-TouchWiz review of the machine from a major tech publication, but I haven't found one yet.

I don't have a Tab so I won't answer, but I much prefer TouchWiz on my Galaxy S.  It doesn't seem to slow down the phone noticeably; the lag everyone complains about on the SGS is due to the RFS filesystem, which is why I am using an ext4 FS.

Well, nobody seemed to be able to answer this question, so I went ahead and applied the update.
Overall, I'm glad I did. I haven't noticed any significant change in performance. I could take or leave most of the UI changes included in Touchwiz, but there are a few things in the new UI that are very nice. One is that toggles for things like bluetooth, wifi, and auto-rotation are now immediately accessible in the notifications pop-up when you touch the notification tray. Another nice thing is a dedicated screenshot button that appears next to the regular android buttons in the control bar at the bottom. Press it at any time for an instant screenshot.
I haven't noticed that any features have been disabled. I don't have a 3G-capable tablet, so I don't know if the "portable wi-fi hotspot" functionality would be affected by the update. But everything else I've tried functions as it did before.
Also, an unexpected bonus to the upgrade is that Samsung released a bunch of new apps bundled with the new UI, some of which are very useful. The ebooks app especially is nice for me, it reads EPUB and PDF files, and it formats EPUBs better and performs faster than some of the other apps I've tried (like FBReader). There's also an app for making adjustments to photos, and a few others that I haven't really used.
The new TouchWiz UI also includes a handful of mini-apps that can be launched from the android control bar at any time. These apps appear in small windows that float over whatever other apps you're running, and they can be moved around. None of these apps are really awesome, but some are useful. For example, you can bring up a mini-view of your calendar, a small music player, or a note pad you can type into or draw on, without leaving the app you were using before. It's kind of a neat idea, although I'm glad this isn't a standard android feature or there would be way too many apps written this way, and Android would lose a lot of its ease-of-use.


text:
Removing non-Google contacts from Messaging
I have a Samsung Galaxy S2 (running Gingerbread 2.3.3) and enabled syncing of contacts for Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google. I've been finding it really annoying that when I go to write a message I start typing in a name and I get a bunch of e-mail addresses from Facebook, etc - people who are not in my main contact book and that I do not want to contact from 'Messaging' on my phone.
I have tried setting the option where only contacts with phone numbers are displayed but I think this only applies to the 'Contacts' application and not messaging. Any ideas?

If you're using the in-built (stock) messaging app, see if there's an option in the settings similar to what you've described. By default, only contacts with mobile numbers should be shown.
Alternative messaging apps like GoSMS and Handcent also have an option to restrict contacts with mobile numbers. In GoSMS, it's in the SENDING section of the settings.

I've had a look at the Settings for the 'Messaging' app (yes, I'm using the in-built standard app) and there doesn't appear to be a similar setting.

It's there in Android Eclair. Perhaps it was removed in Gingerbread. Like I mentioned earlier, I strongly recommend switching to an alternative SMS app for the sheer range of configurable options available.

Do you have any recommendations for SMS app? I don't know if the fact that I'm in the UK matters at all.

GoSMS and Handcent SMS are both free and have loads of features. Both are regularly updated. Do remember to disable notifications in the stock Messaging app if you use an alternative app- this will avoid duplicate notifications.

I had similar problems. Finally I just decided to unlink all my contacts from both Gmail and Facebook and whatever else, Android want's to sync contacts with. Basically turn off any contact sync you may find on the phone. Then backup and clean out or delete the entire Address book. (Do the same with "new" phone contacts in Gmail, which usually gets doubled.)
Here is a long guide how to manually backing up all your contacts and emails to a CSV file, and how to import them again. You can then use the same CSV file to import your contacts into Gmail afterwards.
"About Contacts Import/Export, Backup/Restore and Data/Sync"
Hope this helps.


text:
Why does Kies tell me that my Galaxy S has no updates?
Why does Samsung Kies tell me that my Galaxy S GT-i9000 has no OS or firmware updates even though there are downloads available on the internet?

What "downloads on the internet" are you referring to?  What version of Android is your phone running?

If by "downloads available" you mean a OS upgrade, that is because those are not official releases, and since Kies is an official Samsung application they do not provide unofficial releases.
Currently, the last official release for the Samsung Galaxy S is Android 2.2 Froyo.
If you are referring to "official releases" and your OS is < 2.2, then you can have some variant system, for which there is no firmware upgrade, or you can have some problems with a not-up-to-date Kies version.
Also, check this thread out!

Because the updates that Kies offers you depend from whom and where you bought your phone. If you bought the phone in a shop, you purchased normally a country or region specific version. These versions get the update from Samsung one by one. For the Galaxy S you can lookup the release status here.
If you purchased your phone together with an carrier contract, chances are that you have an branded firmware. Then it's the carrier decision when to release an update. You normally also get a reduced set of functionality on branded firmware, like disabled tethering.
The firmware images that you find on the net are mostly leaked pre-version of the upcoming update.


text:
Phone randomly cannot recognize my Wifi network
I have a few WiFi network in the neighborhood and the Nexus S will always detect those networks that I never use. However, for my own WiFi network, it randomly fails to recognize the network, even though I sit right next to the router. I know that everything else is OK, because I can access the network through my laptop, and if I just restart the router, the phone will start to pick up the signal again.
I think there might be something wrong with my router, because I never have that problem with the network at work. The only difference I can think of is, I turn off my router right when I stop using WiFi...
What might be wrong? Is this a known bug? Are there workarounds (that does not involve restarting the router?
Update: I do find some clue. If I turn the router on before turning on wireless on the phone (via the power management widget), then things work just fine. If I turn on wireless on the phone before the router, I'll need to restart the router. I don't know how much sense it makes though.

Was this always the case?  This really sounds like your router is just flaky, which we can't help you with ...

No it's random. And if the problem is with the router, then why don't I have it on my laptop?

I've found the problem. Both the router and the phone was working correctly. The problem is with the Wifi channels. According to Wikipedia's List of WLAN channels, some places only allow channels 1-11, some others 1-13. Devices will provide support accordingly. My router supports channels 1-13, while the phone (I guess) supports channels 1-11. So when the router uses channels 12 or 13, the phone cannot detect the network!
Solution?

Buy another router which only support channels 1-11.
Logon to your Routers config through your browser to find whether the router supports limiting the channels. Refer to your Routers user manual on how to do this
Change the channel settings on the router to be manual (i.e not automatic), and somewhere in the range 1-11 (preferably 1 or 6 or 11).


text:
Can I install CWM without Odin or root?
I have an SGS with stock Gingerbread (2.3.3).  Can I install CWM without Odin?
Will installing CWM also root the phone, or do I have to root it ahead of time?

You need Odin in order to install CWM without root (or conversely, you need root to install CWM without Odin).  CWM does not root the phone.
You don't need root for ClockworkMod Recovery, though you do need root for the ROM Manager app.
Edit: You can't install unsigned packages with the "3E" recovery, which was part of some official update packages (most Froyo ones and presumably all Gingerbread ones).  This prevents one from flashing a custom ROM, kernel, modem, or recovery through the stock recovery (since they aren't signed by the manufacturer).
The way to get around this is normally to use Odin to flash a custom ROM or kernel with a custom recovery.  I'm not sure if flashing a signed update to an older official ROM, with the older recovery, would work; it might say it's older than your current version and fail, or it might just work.  I've never been able to try it, and I'm familiar with Odin anyways.

Between the time I asked this and the time I saw your answer, I found that there are issues with doing this if I have a 3E recovery (which I do). Could you comment on that?

@Nathan Ah, good point.  Done!


text:
Can I install Darky ROM using CWM even if I'm not coming from a previous Darky ROM?
I want to install Darky ROM to replace my stock Gingerbread phone.
Can I do this without Odin, using CWM, or will that only work if I have a previous version of Darky?

If you have a working CWM or 2e recovery you can flash Darky's with it just fine from a stock ROM.  If you have a lagfix, particularly the ext2 OCLF, be sure to undo it first.  (It appears Darky's uses the Voodoo ext4 lagfix, so no need to disable Voodoo beforehand.  See Is the Voodoo lagfix compatible with Darky's ROM?)
Note that your data will be wiped unless you're already using Darky's, as per the XDA thread.

The XDA link seems to be broken...
Does the data in question include all the files on the internal sd card?

@Nathan Hmm, it is taking a while to load for me, maybe they're having server issues. In any case, it doesn't normally affect the internal SD storage. I can't guarantee you that Darky's won't screw up, but I've never had any trouble with any of the custom ROMs I've tried.  You can always back up the internal SD to your PC if you want, just a simple copy-paste.


text:
Can I flash a kernel without flashing a ROM?
Does flashing a new kernel require flashing a new ROM?
Will flashing a new kernel wipe the data?  Because if so, I might as well flash a new ROM.
How can I see which kernels are compatible with which ROMs?

Does flashing a new kernel require flashing a new ROM?
It depends.  You can't normally flash a 2.3 kernel over a 2.2 ROM, and so on.  You can't flash a CyanogenMOD kernel on a stock ROM in most cases, and vice versa.  But you should be able to flash any Android X.X stock-based kernel (for your device) over any Android X.X stock-based ROM.
For example, there are no issues flashing a 2.2 Voodoo kernel on my 2.2 stock-based Bionix ROM for my SGS Vibrant.
Will flashing a new kernel wipe the data?
Not usually.  When flashing a lagfix ROM such as Voodoo that does advanced partitioning and formatting, there can occasionally be issues that will make you lose data.  As well, update packages can include scripts to automatically wipe the data.  You should carefully read the official description of any kernel to see if it mentions wiping data.
I've flashed dozens of kernels and only lost data once, and that was probably my fault; I had a fairly non-standard configuration.  It's always good to do a backup if you can.  Some ROMs recommend or automatically perform data wipes to eliminate any incompatible data between the two ROMs, but this is normally not an issue for kernels.
How can I see which kernels are compatible with which ROMs?
Again, any ROM based on stock is normally compatible with any kernel for your device based on a stock kernel from the same Android version.  If you have concerns I would first search the XDA posts for the kernel and the ROM to see if you can find anyone who has used them in combination.


text:
How can I get my phone to find contacts by name *or* company name?
I have an HTC Droid Incredible running Android 2.2 (Froyo). I keep my contacts in GMail, and they are automatically synced to my phone. The problem is, my phone's "Search People" app seems to search by business name/organization only if no contact name has been entered.
Is there any way to trick the phone into searching by either name or business name/organization when both of these fields are in use?
Alternatively, is there a better app for looking up contacts than the "Search People" app that came with the phone?

try using google search, works flawlesly on my magic to look for contacts in any way i like , you might need to update latest version from the market

+1. You're right...that does work. I can't understand why it would do a much smarter search than the "Search People" app, but it does. The only thing I don't like about it is that you have to select People from the drop-down menu. I'd like to be able to set up a shortcut so I can do a search with just one click from the home screen, but the shortcut ends up being People Search rather than Google People Search. Anyway, thanks for the answer.

you can also add the google search widget and configure it to search in contacts by default

Go for Truecaller app. It's the best app for finding name by phone number.

Why? What does it make so special? And is there a link you can provide to find the app?


text:
Delayed updates on Facebook
I am sending messages on Facebook using my mobile (Samsung Galaxy Pop) wi-fi. Other person is using a desktop or laptop. There is a delay in the update of the conversation ... not real time updates happening like any other chat-box happening between computers.
Would there be a delay in the update of the messages?
Why am I getting delay in update of my messages?
Is it related to Android wi-fi?

See also: http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/13030/how-do-i-enable-push-notifications-for-facebook-for-android/13032

I'm pretty sure it's just that the app is buggy.  Push messages have never worked right for me either.  The latest version of the Facebook app (released in the last week or two) is better, but not perfect.


text:
How do I enable push notifications for Facebook for Android?
I'm currently running the latest stable release of CM7 for the HTC Droid Incredible and Facebook for Android 1.6.4 (released on 20 August). According to Facebook, push notifications are enabled for devices that support them. Since I get push notifications from other applications (such as Google+), I know my device supports them.
I've read about various problems with them, but I haven't found any definitive solutions (or a definitive lack of a solution). I would assume the setting for push notifications would be in the application's Settings menu. I have a number of options for various times to pull notifications down, but I don't see an option for push notifications in the app or on the Facebook website.
Is this just a broken application or am I missing something?

Funnily enough, as I just noted here I believe that the app is just buggy and unreliable.  There's no reason for the individual device to determine whether the application can do something like push notifications.  Android's cloud to device messaging requires 2.2 or higher, and the Facebook post notes that that's what they require as well, so I assume that's what they're using. C2DM works perfectly fine for other apps so the only reasonable explanation is that the Facebook app doesn't work properly.
The app was updated recently and does work better for many users, though, so make sure you have the latest version.
There are no settings related to push messages in the app or in the Accounts and Sync settings.  Regular sync is every 3 hours at most, which seems infrequent to me — my BlackBerry allows updates every half hour.

I'm going to update the question, but I'm running the latest version of Facebook for Android (1.6.4, from 20 August). The refresh interval option has settings for 30 minutes, 1 hour, 2 hours, 3 hours, and never. It's currently set for 1 hour, but push would be best.

@Thomas Ah, your refresh interval options must be a CM thing.  Lucky :P

I find that interesting that the ROM would have an impact on how frequently an application can refresh itself. If it can control that, can the ROM also control if an app can or can't use push notifications?

@Thomas Turns out I'm an idiot. I'm back at home where I left my phone and the current version does have the refresh interval options you mention, and I have it set to every 30 minutes.  My "Social networking sync interval" in Settings -> Accounts and sync still shows 3 hours and shows up under the Facebook account, though, so I don't know what's going on there.  Either way I would still blame the app rather than your ROM.

Well, since everything that I've ever been able to find confirms this, I think I'll accept this answer in the near future. I'm just going to wait a bit (until tomorrow morning) to see if anyone has anything, but it looks like it's the app's/Facebook's fault. Thanks.


text:
What's "creation mode" in the Galaxy S's offical messaging application?
If you open the official messaging App, go to menu then settings, there is a setting "creation mode" which has the following options (in that order):

restricted
warning
free

What does this change? Is this documented somewhere?

From a Google search for "mms creation mode" I found this (among others) which says:

• MMS creation mode — Select Restricted to have your device prevent
  you from including content in multimedia messages that may not be
  supported by the network or the receiving device. To receive warnings
  about including such content, select Guided. To create a multimedia
  message with no restrictions on attachment type, select Free. If you
  select Restricted, creating multimedia presentations is not possible.

Messages longer than 3 texts in length get sent as MMS (picture messages) rather than SMS (texts), thereby costing more than texts, or being outside your contract (if you have pre-paid texts).

If you leave this setting on 'Free', this conversion to an MMS will happen with no warning.
If you leave this setting on 'Warning', you get a brief flash of a warning message on your screen when you type a message that is longer than 3 texts in length.
If you have it on 'Restricted', you shouldn't be able to type a longer message in one go, but I have to say that my Galaxy Ace is set on 'Restricted' and I have still managed to inadvertently send a long message as an MMS.


text:
How do I get private bookmark from web Google Maps to Android Google Maps?
I have few private placemarks stored to "My Places" on Google Maps web version using same Google account than my Android Google Maps uses.
How do I get those places to the Android?

There are two ways I think you can do this, in the Android app, click on the layer selection and go to the My Maps layer, where you should see your private maps.
If you want to access your bookmarked address, from the main Maps screen, click the menu button and choose the bookmarks option. (not sure about bookmarks, I have a French UI, so it shows as 'favoris')


text:
Default launcher broken, causing infinite loop of force closes
I've just installed a custom rom and restored my apps from Titanium. However, now the default Launcher app is broken and I can't get out of the infinite loop of force closing. I can't press menu or anything to remove it as default. How do I get out of this pickle?
I have a GT-i9000.

Also, try using safe mode. You haven't mentioned which device and version of Android you're using, so it's hard to help.

Are you using the stock TouchWiz launcher or another?

@MatthewRead I've had TouchWiz go into an infinite crash loop just from booting normally! Fortunately, a reboot fixed the problem, but still...

Did you have web install working? Then you can try installing an alternative launcher through the web-based Android Market, and that will (hopefully) cause the default launcher to be reset.

I had a similar problem after upgrading from stock 2.3.3 to rooted JVR 2.3.4.  After the upgrade pretty much every app and background process constantly force closed - including launcherpro.
By pressing and holding the home button very quickly after I closed the FC messages I was eventually able to bring up the "recent apps" window, then select task manager, and from there I was able to uninstall LauncherPro.
However after a bit more mucking around I decided to do a factory reset, as pretty much every app on the phone was broken.
Before I did the upgrade I had backed up my call logs & sms messages, and used listables to generate a HTML file with all of my installed apps, and I used this list to install the apps I wanted to keep again.

If this infinite loop is causing Android touch / mouse to be unresponsive, you should uninstall the faulty App with an external Keyboard:
Connect an external USB keyboard -> Then press F3 key to open Android Setting menu -> Uninstall in Application Manager.


text:
How can I prevent stock Android browser from loading last visited page?
Whenever I launch the stock Android browser (my phone's running Gingerbread), it loads the last visited page. If the last page was a 'heavy' one and I'm on a mobile connection, it can often slow down browser start. Is there any way to prevent the browser from doing this?

You can close all the pages via Menu -> Windows before exiting the browser.
If you want the last page to stay loaded and not reload, you have to make sure the browser isn't killed or forced to give up memory by Android.  In other words, use only lightweight apps or don't use anything, and hope your system behaves :P

Even though I have usually 160 MB+ memory free, my browser always reloads page whenever I launch it again. Very annoying.

You may want to consider using an app such as Bookmark Home.  This creates a type of launcher for bookmarks, similar to Chrome's New Tab homepage or Opera's speed dial.  You can import your bookmarks from the browser.  This is probably the closest you can get to loading a default home page like Google Search, as opposed to loading the last page - it just has that one extra step.


text:
Why is my battery life fluctuating?
I installed CM7 on my LG P500, and ever since the battery sometimes lasts 30 hours, sometimes for 8 hours, under the same usage and same power state (conservative).  How can I fix this?

Have you tried wiping and reflashing?

Yes, did that! Now I am slowly getting use to the shenanigans of CM7, but I hate it when I cant predict how long the battery is going to last.

Please ask distinct questions separately.  I've edited this down to just the first issue, you can post the others as separate questions.  Hopefully that will get you more attention and answers.

I was having that problem, and the solution that helped me was to charge up the battery completely, then use the recovery boot menu to wipe battery stats. Then, I used the phone until the battery died and the phone shut itself off. During that time, it is important to not plug in your phone to USB or charger, it has to drain continuously. Then you can charge it back up again and use it as normal. It should help to make the battery percentage more accurate, and to drop in a more stable way.


text:
Can I use dual boot in my Android mobile phone?
I want to know is there any boot loader modifying tool for android so that I can use my cell as dual boot. Like Symbian- Android, Android - Windows Mobile, Android - Java, Android - Bada.
Is it possible.

Yes it's possible to dual boot Android and Windows Mobile or dual boot multiple different Android ROMs or dual boot Android and WebOS.


text:
Where are my apps?
My handset was replaced under warranty and I was expecting my apps to sync to the new handset but when I check my apps in market none of them are listed.  Do I really have to manually find every single app and widget to download it separately?  Previously, such as after a factory reset, the apps would be listed and I could easily install them in one hit.  I am using the same Google account on the same type of Sony Ericcson Xperia Arc handset, albeit a new one.

You could try going to Settings -> Privacy and ensuring Automatic restore is checked, though I don't know if it will help.  Google has only ever remembered my paid apps when I've done a reset, so I always do a backup.

The web based market seems to remember installation history longer than the phone version.

If you go into the web version of the Play Store and then click on the link My Market Account at the top of the screen it shows you all the free and paid apps that you have downloaded since you opened your Android Google Account. From here you can also click the app name and then click the download button which then sends the download to your phone.
I've done this quite a few times when I have had to reinstall my phone
Hope this helps


text:
Force VPN usage?
On an android phone, stock or modded rom, is it possible to force the use of VPN? E.g. only allow traffic tunneled by VPN, don't allow traffic without using VPN to make sure that no unencrypted traffic leaks. Thanks for any hint!

Are you having a problem with "leaked" traffic, or just assuming that using a VPN with Android is unreliable?  If the latter, would you not also assume that any "force VPN" method is unreliable?

both ;-) on mobile usage connections (VPN) are always unreliable, so when VPN gets disconnected, I want to make sure that no traffic gets send until the VPN connection is re-established.

Ah, fair enough! It might be possible to use an app like Tasker to turn off data when you lose your VPN connection, but I don't know the specifics.

Looks like you want to apply a security policy to a device...

yes, it some way it's a security police - but that's not supported on normal android versions, right? ):

I recommend you check out Tails and see what troubles they have had preventing 'leaks'.  Some things, such as DNS lookups, cause these leaks.

Answering an old question, I know, but Android 4.2 has "Always-on VPN" in the menu on the VPN Settings page: setting a VPN profile under this will maintain the VPN connection, and only allow network traffic when connected to it.
More info: http://support.google.com/nexus/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=2819573
(It may have been added in an earlier version of Android, but my Nexus 7 auto-updated before I got around to setting up the VPN :)

wow, that is cool! and if it works like described, it perfectly solves my problem! luckily I have a galaxy nexus with 4.2.1 :-) Thank you very much for answering this old question! Of course selected as correct answer :-)

You could install Orbot on your phone and install a bridge on your server.

Depending on your needs, you might want to restrict bridge access via
a whitelist. (Please see comments)
This isn't a true VPN, but provides the same functionality.
Orbot can force ALL traffic or app-specific traffic.

Orbot [02/20/12] 0.2.3.10-alpha-orbot-1.0.7-FINAL.apk

Thank you, but I think there's one downside on this: I don't want to route my traffic over foreign computers and when I set up a bridge at home I guess traffic is routed from my bridge at home to the tor network and then to it's real destination? ):

If you were to (correctly) set up a bridge on a server that you owned, you could 1) Limit who could use it (only you) and 2) Have it be the 'exit node', so that all of your traffic would leave from this server and not use any other Tor servers. :D.  This is a very powerful tool, but you may  find other users with experience with other tools that will suit your needs more easily.

Hmm I would I make sure I am the only one who can use it? Seems like there's no kind of authentication?

I imagine you would start by using Tor's configuration (check their documentation) and iptables to restrict usage.  Like I said, there is probably a 'better' solution for you, but I personally trust TorProject's Orbot more than any other VPN solution currently available.  I plan to set this up myself and provide a tutorial soon.

According to a user from the tor help mailing list there is unfortunately no kind of authentication for bridges.

I think it would still be possible using iptables, but this might be a ridiculous way to go about things if your ip changes often and may cause additional security risks.

SSHTunnel

SSHTunnel is an ssh tunnel/vpn solution for Android.  When I first found SSHTunnel, users were forced to use an application's settings to use SOCK5 proxy, but now sshtunnel can handle per application and global use on its own.  Just like rooting is required to get the full functionality of Orbot, you will need a rooted device in order to get what you need from SSHTunnel.
Although this is not a VPN, this is a much simpler setup that will give you an encrypted tunnel to your server.  You can interact with your server through this connection directly, or use it to receive or bounce traffic outwards.

Note:
Unencrypted traffic sent to your server (ie http) will be encrypted through your ssh tunnel, but it will still be clear/unencrypted once it leaves your server.

Links & QR

Google Play/Market
Official Website


text:
Installing official Google Marketplace on a chinese Asus Eee Pad Transformer 101

Possible Duplicate:
How can I install the Google Apps Package (Play Store, …) on my Android device?

I'm currently living in China,
so I bought my Asus Eee Pad Transformer 101 here.
For some reason it does not come with the official Google Marketplace application
but with some other application that only supports chinese as a UI language and uses some
other "less official" market place.
I did find the Market App from google and installed it.
However when I start it it tells me

You must add an account to the device to continue. Do you want to add
  one now?

If I click Yes, I'm simply redirected to the home screen (the app remains open in the background)
Does anybody know of a way to set this up? Because the only thing  was able to
add to the device was my gmail account for e-mail.
Thnx.

I think you'll probably need to root and install another ROM with proper Google Account support, but I'm not familiar with this.

But these roms cannot be legally downloaded right?

I'm not familiar with ASUS's terms but I would assume they would not disallow you from downloading their official ROM from another region to your device.  That said, obtaining the Market separately may have been questionably legal :P

Apparently there is no way to do it.
There are some alternative market places that can be used, but they don't solve the fact that tablets with the chinese firmware are rendered useless because there's no Google account support.
So the only thing you can do really is install this:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1245892
Works like a charm :)
Oh and for the Prime, Asus officially supports it.


text:
Is there a reliable way to tell if my call is blocked by the call recipient?
I want to know if my calls are being blocked by number xxx-xxxxxxxx and if so log the data.
Is there a reliable way to tell if my call is blocked by the call recipient?

You won't be able to tell this information: the target phone could be switched off or unplugged for example.

The fact that it could be off or unplugged doesn't in any way mean that the network cannot report that the phone was on and reachable but blocked the call.  Or if it's a carrier-level block there's nothing to stop the carrier from reporting the block.  I would suspect that the carriers prevent both of these or at least do nothing to enable it, but that's a different point.

So is "You won't be able to tell this information" incorrect? Your comment implies "no" but you still downvoted?


text:
How to Securely Delete Data from Phone and Card
I'm planning on selling my current Android (2.2) device and was wondering what is the best way to remove all of my data from the phone and memory card. Will a factory reset do it? What about formatting the card?

See also these similar previous questions: http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/4623/i-have-sold-my-phone-on-ebay-what-should-i-do-before-i-send-it-off and http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/2722/how-do-i-prep-my-phone-for-resale not nominating either as a duplicate as this question seems to be more specific about how to securely wipe the phone, where the others are asking what (or if that) should be done.

Erasing your phone internal memory
I have not tried it but using Android fastboot or an recovery ROM it should be possible to overwrite each partition on your device. Fastboot also supports an erase command - I assume that this erase can not be considered a secure erase.
Therefore a secure way would be to overwrite to the two partitions userdata and cache (and may be others depending on your device). The image used for overwriting should be as large as the partition.
Erasing the SD-Card
SD-cards can easily be "undelete" using a card reader and a common PC. Therefore it is strongly recommended to wipe it.
Best way would be to use an SD-Card reader on your PC and then use a tool like WipeDisk.

Make sure you back up any data you'll want from both the phone and the card beforehand.
A factory reset will clear all user modifications to the stock software (installed apps, files, etc), leaving a clean device. For the card, go to Settings - SD & Phone Storage (or some similar menu), and select "Unmount" and then "Format SD Card" or "Erase SD Card". This will erase all data from the card.

This won't be a secure delete, though, the data may still be present.  I'm not sure exactly whether the user's looking for a zeroing wipe or not though so no downvote.

Zeroing out the data would be ideal, as I am selling both the device and the card. Is this possible? Should I just hold on to the card?

The card is easy to "undelete" - therefore it is strongly recommended to wipe it. Best way would be to use an SD-Card reader on your PC and then use a tool like WipeDisk.

For the internal storage of the phone you can only do a "Factory reset", this will leave your phone with the default factory configuration with no apps installed or any configuration. It's not a "safe method" of deleting the content, but you can't have access to the physical internal storage so this is all you can do.
For the SD card, as @Robert said, the best option is to extract it from the phone and put on a Card reader in your PC and use some "safe erase" software. The one @Robert mentioned, WipeDisk, is free and reasonably good, so it’s a good option.

I don't think that you need "physical internal access". Android is basically a linux system and on rooted phones you can have access to everything, even the partitions on a level below the file-system. Additionally using a recovery-ROM and tools like nandroid it should be possible to extract the data stored on the partitions.


text:
How can I mount a USB flash drive on my Acer Iconia?
I have an Acer Iconia A500 tablet with Android 3.1. I cannot mount any USB flash drives. File Manager HD and other similar apps display "Directory is empty" in /mnt/usb_storage/. I have tried use a flash drive formatted FAT32, and my USB port works (I've checked with a USB mouse).  How can I get this to work?

What types of drives have you tried? There are some (mostly older) drives that won't work even on a PC without custom drivers.

It is just flash memory. USB Flash Silicon-Power 8 Gb. It works on all PC without drivers.

You have to use File Manager HD and do the following Steps :

On the panel at the left tap Storage.
On the panel at the top right press the Up arrow until the first directory entry is asec.
Now scroll down through the directory and you should see usb_storage.
4.Tap usb_storage and you should see your data.

Hope i will help.
From : http://androidforums.com/acer-iconia-tab-a500/358421-iconia-a500-cant-browse-through-usb-flash-drive.html

The USB host mount script seems to be on the flaky side. My tab reports the drive is inserted but is not mounted to /mnt/usb_storage. A reboot is the only way I've found to fix this.

Being 8GB I believe it could be a way the flash is using mass storage.
Although all drives should be seen, not all are setup by each manufacture the same.
Have you tried to format the flash as a 2GB fat32 to determine mass storage feature for the drive or for the tab?
I assume that this flash is valid as you have been able to format it.
How do any other flash drives work?
I also found quite a few HP flash drives have issues as they attempt to install the extra software from the minor partition.


text:
Need a way to prevent phone wakeup when slider opens
Is there a way to stop my phone from waking itself when the slider opens? Because my phone does things in my pockets :(

What phone do you have?

@Al Motorola Milestone :/

The easiest solution would be to use the unlock pattern instead of the swipe to unlock screen.
It is far less likely that your pocket will manage to input your entire unlock pattern, thus the device will do nothing even if some touchevents do get sent to the screen.

Sliding action may be a "key" trigger that has a key code assigned to it. You can modify such keys if you are rooted. (you can confirm this by running the hardware key test inside ClockWork Mod Recovery, then simply slide the phone and see a key code is shown)
Then you can use the Button ReMapper app to change the WAKE of that key to something else that isn't wake. (Be warned though, you should have some other button to WAKE your phone up or else you will be stuck without finding a way to wake your phone)
Follow the instructions of Button ReMapper over at the XDA : http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=850464
Please don't hold me responsible for any damages, do it only if you feel like.


text:
how do I get most of my standard linux utilities and commands on Android 3.1?
by standard, i mean just what users often get by default with one of the popular distros.
for example, uname, finger, vim, tmux, etc.
I have a galaxy tab 10.1 (android version 3.1, already rooted)
Also, I read somewhere about setting up a chroot on android to run full-fledged linux distros, such as debian. Is that possible?

Android isn't a Linux distro, so these utilities are not standard at all.

BusyBox for rooted devices gives many of Linux's standard utilities.
In terms of a real Linux distro, there are tons of How-Tos found on the web with a simple Google search.  Specifically, here is a step-by-step guide from XDA-Developers forum on building a Debian image for, and installing it on, the Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet.


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Is there a way to blacklist SSIDs?

Possible Duplicate:
How can I tell my droid x to ignore a public wifi network?

Like, the SSIDs xfinitywifi and timewarnercable are everywhere near me, and unencrypted, but require a login/password which I don't have.  Is there a way to prevent them from showing up in the list, triggering notifications, etc.?

+1 This would be useful. I'm often in areas surrounded by "free" wifi that isn't.

Blacklisting SSIDs is not currently in the base android software.  It is currently a "Medium" priority Enhancement for Android:  See Android Issue 7318
I have asked a related question ( How can I tell my device to ignore a public Wi-Fi network? ) but haven't found anything that works like I would expect.


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Make Google my default contact type on T-Mobile my touch 4G
New contacts sync to T-Mobile instead of Google unless I manually change the contact type EVERY time I add a contact to my phone.
I want the default to be Google not T-Mobile

For my Verizon HTC Thunderbolt, I opened the People application (hopefully the same as Contacts), opened the menu, clicked View (an eye icon), then unselected everything but Google. After that, when I click to add a new contact, Google is automatically selected.


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A widget to show tasks that are two days closer to due date
I am using Jorte application which has a home screen widget to show a list of tasks (synced from Google tasks). But it display all tasks, even the ones that has the due date next month.
Are there any home screen widget that displays tasks that have their due dates within two days from today's date. I do not want to see all tasks.
People who have used Symbian before, would be familiar with this feature. In Symbian, this is a default feature in the homescreen.

Pure Calendar Widget (not free) has an option for how many days ahead to show calendar/task entries for.  There is an option for 2 days that would suit your needs perfectly.  Note that you will need a supported app to sync the tasks from Google (GTasks, Astrid, etc.)  See the list of supported task apps here.


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Galaxy S2 keeps periodically showing "Refreshing SIM data" toast
I have a rooted Samsung Galaxy S2 running the stock Samsung ROM (no custom ROMs ever).
Of late, I notice that every few minutes, a toast pops up saying 'Refreshing SIM data'. If the screen had been blanked earlier, it reactivates, and this is annoying, especially at night.
I don't know if this is relevant, but only recently I got 3G activated (Vodafone, Bangalore,India) and it didn't happen before.
Anyone seen this, and is there a workaround or fix?
Update - Have upgraded to 2.3.5 Gingerbread and with different kernels (Ninphetamine and DarkyROM SuperCore) but it makes no difference. I wonder if it's because of the service provider.

I found the same thing happen to my galaxyace after I activated 3g vodafone bangalore

So I found a solution that works for Indian Vodafone 3G users at least.
Simply create a new access point with the same settings as the one provided (called Vodafone Connect), set it as default, and reboot.
I've not seen the popup appear again after that.

Could it be that the SIM contacts are corroded or bent slightly, so that the phone thinks it lost connection and then regained it? If this is the case, try cleaning the contacts with alcohol.

I checked the SIM, it looks pretty clean, but still took it out and replaced it. I've seen other users also report this problem across various fora but haven't found a solution so far.


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decent right-click emulation
I'm using aDOSbox to play some classical games. This in turn uses SDL library, one of the thing this library does is emulate mouse. It's the same library, that is also used by ScummVM.
I've got it set up to be quite usable for left-click (I'm using "tap or hold"), but I'm having trouble getting right-click to work decently. I'm using default settings, which is doing two finger tap. However, very often it'll get recognized two as single ones instead. The best option would be to use hardware button, however I'm using Galaxy S II, and all hardware buttons are reserved.
Any suggestion on best settings to use?

A slide in a particular direction. Or may be a slide in multiple directions (say one slide to the right from the top left to top right, continued down from right top to right bottom). I don't know how effective it might be, but I guess worth a try.


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Can I use Dvorak on a physical keyboard?
I use Dvorak as my main typing layout. I own a Motorola Xoom tablet, for which I bought an external bluetooth keyboard. I couldn't find how to use Dvorak on the physical keyboard though; I tried some of the Dvorak-capable keyboard apps in the App Store (Hacker's Keyboard, Honso Multiling, XenionSH Dvorak Keyboard), but none of these seemed to help (ASK has an open issue for this: http://code.google.com/p/softkeyboard/issues/detail?id=181)
Has anyone managed to do something similar (using either an external BT keyboard or a phone with an inbuilt physical keyboard.)

If your phone is rooted I think that you can write your own keyboard layout. I'm using my own layout (on SGS I9000) for some Chinese blouetooth keyboard that I bougth recently.
Layout files are in /system/usr/keylayout/ directory. Layout file that is used by my keyboard is Broadcom_Bluetooth_HID.kl. I think that layout used by built-in keyboard will be qwerty.kl - you could modify it and check if it's working.
Remember to make backups of original files before changing it...

Thanks - for those looking for more detail I found the following tutorials: http://www.mjvanderwielen.com/?p=1321 and http://jahrome.free.fr/index.php/keyboard-mapping-android-htc-desire?lang=en . Note that these require root.

I've made an app that supports a lot (over 30) different layouts and for the latest version (version 2.7) I've added the Dvorak layout. It does not require root.
You can read more about the app here: http://www.apedroid.com/android-applications/external-keyboard-helper

Maybe you should mention that your program is not free.

I tried a couple options and ended up using an app from RaidSix (com.tiagofalcao.raidsixinputdevices)*, which added new layouts for physical keyboards.
I was then able to add multiple layouts to both a Bluetooth and a Logitech Unifying Receiver (via a USB On-The-Go cable) wireless keyboard, under:

Settings/Personal/Keyboard and Language ->
Physical Keyboard/the-physical-keyboard-in-question/Set Up Keyboard Layouts

It may not be as convenient as the External-Keyboard-Helper app, though.
Amazon Fire, Fire OS 5.1.1, Google Play Store enabled
* I don't know what the policy is for linking to specific apps, but here's the full Google Play Store link.


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What is this HTC notification icon that looks like a pin?
What is the icon in between the two red lines on the notification bar? I can't find it in the Android 2.3 user guide!

I think it is by places, the application. Just try closing the application and then trying.


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Personalize Text Wallpaper
Anyone came across a android application (preferably Gingerbread, 2.3) that allow you to set personalize Nice text as your wallpaper? (I know there are some not nice application around) I search for Android market but most of the application displays clock, temperature, weather, etc which I don't really want. I saw someone on the train having their own customized word on their phone which is kind of Co0l!
Much Thanks!

Do you want text that changes in some way, or just some static text that doesn't change?

If all you want is static text that doesn't change in any way, then by far the easiest way is to open your wallpaper image in an imaging editing program either on a PC (something as simple as Windows Paint would do) or on the phone (search the Android Market for something like "image editor" or "photo editor" and you should find lots of apps that can do this like PicSay or Pho.to Lab) and add the text straight onto the picture.


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How can I connect an Xperia X8 to an external monitor?
Is it possible to connect the Xperia X8 to external monitor? In other words, display the screen from the phone on the monitor?

One approach would be to find a VNC-like server for the phone.  Using that they should be able to bring up the UI of the phone onto a computer.