text:
How to properly propagate unmounting of USB OTG storage to all mount namespaces (rooted device)
This is a (spiritual) follow-up to the previously answered question How to bind mount a folder inside /sdcard with correct permissions?.
Device: Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 8.0
ROM: LineageOS 16.0 (Android 9) with Magisk
Other things to note: SELinux set to permissive
This in-car tablet with OTG storage via permanently-mounted USB hub. When the car is powered on, the tablet, USB hub, and any peripherals receive power, the tablet switches into OTG mode, and all USB devices are enumerated correctly (confirmed via lsusb in a root shell).
If I reboot the tablet while it is powered, then use the instructions in the above-linked answer, everything seems to work as intended. In summary, after booting, I can mount my USB device to its mount-point as follows
$ su -mm (switch to a global namespace root shell)
# mkdir /data/media/0/usb1 (create the mount point)
# mount -t exfat -o <options string> /dev/block/sdb1 /mnt/runtime/write/emulated/0/usb1

which results in the following mounts:
# mount
...
/dev/block/sdb1 on /mnt/runtime/default/emulated/0/usb1 <options>
/dev/block/sdb1 on /mnt/runtime/read/emulated/0/usb1 <options>
/dev/block/sdb1 on /mnt/runtime/write/emulated/0/usb1 <options>
/dev/block/sdb1 on /storage/emulated/0/usb1 <options>
/dev/block/sdb1 on /storage/emulated/0/usb1 <options>

Just to be clear, the final mount to /storage/emulated/0/usb1 does in fact appear twice. In any case, at this point, everything work as expected as long as the tablet remains powered; all apps can access the data on the USB OTG storage with no issue.
When powered-off and back on, the OTG storage needs to be unmounted and then remounted, since the device gets re-probed (e.g. the USB-OTG storage partition /dev/block/sdb1 will disappear on loss of power, and then when power is applied, it will appear again as /dev/block/sdc1). I've narrowed the issue down to the fact that running umount in a global namespace root shell doesn't seem to propagate to all other mount namespaces. In a root shell, everything works just fine.
umount called on these mounts returns no errors and running mount in a root shell confirms that the drive is no longer mounted. However, even after this, it seems that all of the non-global mount namespaces still retain the mount. There are two things that indicate this:

It's impossible to delete the mount point directory, in any shell (including a root shell):

$ su -mm
# rmdir /data/media/0/usb1
rm: cannot remove /data/media/0/usb1 : Device or resource busy

I've tried running lsof in a root shell, but don't see anything holding a handle open to the mount point directory. I haven't built or downloaded an nsenter binary to switch into the mount namespace of different apps to check, but I suspect the mount is still held open in other namespaces. I say this because...

Apps can still access the USB-OTG storage, even after it's been unmounted in a root shell. The access remains until the tablet loses power, at which point the mount point directory appears empty to all applications. Upon power restoration, if I mount the new partition in /dev/block to the same mount point as before, root shells have no issue accessing the data, however all other apps just see it as an empty directory.

I've tried using a bind mount as follows...
# mount -t exfat /dev/block/sdb1 /mnt/media_rw/usb1
# mount -t sdcardfs /mnt/media_rw/usb1 /mnt/runtime/write/emulated/0/usb1

...but this just pushes the problem to the "base" mount point. On power loss and restore, remounting the exFAT mount and then the bind sdcardfs mount to /sdcard just results in an "empty" folder for apps, but the root shell works properly (both in the /mnt/media_rw_usb1 directory as well as the mount point in /sdcard/usb1). In this case, it becomes impossible to delete the /mnt/media_rw_usb1 directory with the same Device or resource busy error.
I'm thoroughly stumped on how to handle this. I've gotten by in the past by using a Tasker script to use nsenter to enter into the mount namespace of the apps I need to access the drive, and run loops to unmount the directory in question until an error returns, at which point I run a separate task to mount the OTG storage again. I'd like to avoid this approach, though, since it's really kludgy and it's actually quite slow.
I think I've given enough information. Thanks in advance.

while grep -qw '/[^ ]*/usb1' /proc/mounts; do umount -l $(grep -owm1 '/[^ ]*/usb1' /proc/mounts); done; should unmount all old entries for /data/media/0/usb1 in a loop

@alecxs I'm not sure that will be of any use... the drive is actually unmounted in the shell. The issue is that the unmount is not propagating to all other app namespaces.

ah wait, you didn't meant the 5 lines in your question.. you can set namespaces to global in magisk settings

@alecxs That doesn't make any difference. Apps still run in their own mount namespaces on Android 6+

you must reboot to apply that settings

No... the global namespace setting in Magisk only applies to shells, not to running apps.

Let us continue this discussion in chat.

@IrfanLatif you may be the only person that understands what I'm asking

Mount propagation is complicated enough (but not impossible) to understand, and even more complicated to explain, at least in comments or an answer. Most probably you are dealing with a slave or private mount. So try with mount --make-rslave first. For how to use it, and why to use it, please see mount manpage.

Also read about the related concepts in mount, mount_namespaces and sharedsubtree. Keep nsenter and unshare binaries with you throughout your learning experience. I hope you find your answer and will be able to explain the concepts to others :)

@IrfanLatif I did a little more digging today and it seems the issue only appears as soon as I use the different runtime mounting views (i.e. mount anything to the /mnt/runtime/{default,read,write}/.... If I just mount to e.g. /mnt/media_rw/usb1, I can mount/unmount at will with no issues. Because of this, I suspect I'm running into an Android-specific issue where the kernel is holding a handle open to my mounted device. I will try your advice re: the subtree operations, however. Thanks!


text:
How can I export all of my MMS pictures before changing phones?
I am currently using the stock Google Messenger app which came installed on my LG V20. I'm getting a new phone and backing up my data beforehand. It turns out that Messenger doesn't have any method to export all the attached MMS pictures. I can long-press each picture and save it individually, but then I have to scroll through hundreds of threads and tens of thousands of messages! I'm guessing I have ~1000 pictures buried in there...
Now I'm pursuing other apps. Perhaps I could import my MMS messages into a new app which would then allow me to save them?
There used to be something called "Save MMS", but it's no longer available. SMS Backup and Restore supposedly backs up pictures in XML format, but I haven't found a way to extract them into files. It looks like Textra will auto-save incoming MMS pictures into a directory, but not with old pictures found during an import...
My goal is to save these images as files and move them to a computer. I don't want them on the new phone.
Does anyone have any clever ideas?

try MyPhoneExplorer it claims to handle MMS (not tested by me)

I use SMS backup and restore app but not MMS. However, this link from that app help page (faq) indicates that MMS can be restored. Give it a try by selecting a date range to copy and restore https://synctech.com.au/faqs/pixel-mms-missing/// xml format is for call logs and SMS text not MMS media

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


text:
Asus Zenfone cycling in the starting of charging process
I have an ASUS ZenFone Max Pro (X00T/X00TD)
It is/was discharged and powered off. When i plug it in for charging, it is cycling in start of chaging:

vibration
the icon of empty battery
The bootloader is unlocked... text
the icon of empty battery
empty screen
and then starts again from vibration

I tried to clean the phone's connector, even wiped and stracthed the connector a littlebit, and  changed cable, charging source. (One cable is in the 1A charger, another cable is connected to PC.)  It doesn't get better.
I tried to leave it in the cycling, i hoped it gets some power.
Does the phone charge always when connected to power, or it just start the charging process after it shows the charging animation (which i don't reach)?
I tried to step in Fastboot mode. It stays in this mode, no cycling.
Does the phone charge in fastboot mode?
I tried to step in Recovery mode.

vibration
powered by android
The bootloader is unlocked... text
powered by android
empty screen and turns off

In fastboot mode i tried to flash stock recovery, and also TWRP and RedWolf recovery. The flashing process works, but i still cannot get in recovery mode, to see something more, maybe about battery or i dont know.
Of course the phone does not turn on. The same as when i try to get in recovery mode.

vibration
powered by android
The bootloader is unlocked... text
powered by android
empty screen and turns off

I did not do anything special nowadays with the phone. Bootloader unlocking and rooting was years ago, nor i did upgrade, so nothing special. I just used the phone, it discharged, and i'm in this state.
What can i do?
Is it something with charging, or it has enough power after connected in fastboot mode, but the problem is something with the software?
One more thing: maybe i "pressed" the buttons randomly in my pocket.
Is it possible that in an unlucky situation i got into the recovery mode and pressed something away in recovery menu?
Please help.
edit #1:
Is it possible to turn off the charging screen, charging vibration, screen turning on from fastboot mode? Maybe flash something on or similar? Because then it won't use the slowly charging power.
edit #2:
So the sumary now:

My phone is fully charged.
It does not boot into normal.
It does not boot into recovery, nor by hardware keys, nor by command from fastboot. I tried to flash TWRP, RedWolf and the original recovery too.
Fastboot mode works normally.

Parameters:
D:\Mobil>fastboot getvar all
(bootloader) CPU:SDM636
(bootloader) platform:sdm636
(bootloader) secret-key-opt:*censored*
(bootloader) build-type:user
(bootloader) unlocked:yes
(bootloader) off-mode-charge:1
(bootloader) charger-screen-enabled:1
(bootloader) battery-soc-ok:yes
(bootloader) battery-voltage:4286
(bootloader) version-baseband:       *this is empty, i didn't delete it*
(bootloader) version-bootloader:ZB601KL-0x01-20181019151150
(bootloader) variant:SDM EMMC
(bootloader) partition-type:cache:ext4
(bootloader) partition-size:cache: 0x15E00000
(bootloader) partition-type:userdata:ext4
(bootloader) partition-size:userdata: 0xCEB7FBE00
(bootloader) partition-type:system:ext4
(bootloader) partition-size:system: 0x100000000
(bootloader) secure:yes
(bootloader) serialno:*censored*
(bootloader) product:QC_Reference_Phone
(bootloader) max-download-size:536870912
(bootloader) kernel:uefi
all:
finished. total time: 0.031s

D:\Mobil>fastboot oem device-info
...
(bootloader) Verity mode: true
(bootloader) Device unlocked: true
(bootloader) Device critical unlocked: false
(bootloader) Charger screen enabled: true
(bootloader) Bootloader version: ZB601KL-0x01-20181019151150
OKAY [  0.016s]
finished. total time: 0.016s

But:
D:\Mobil>fastboot boot stock_recovery.img
downloading 'boot.img'...
OKAY [  1.859s]
booting...
FAILED (remote: unknown command)
finished. total time: 1.859s

So booting failed. But i don't know why.

Comments are not for extended discussion; this conversation has been moved to chat.

@Firelord, how can we reach chat normally? I mean now i reach chat by your link. But normally how can we start chat?

Go to [chat]. Search for a user and invite them in. Create a chat room for them before that. It is all there in the link.

Believe it or not...
The solution was very stupid.
I cleaned the phone inside, especially the bottom part. Around the connectors, lot of dirt and drying moisture got in. Just enough for - probably - some short circuit.
I don't know why was it okay for fastboot mode, and not okay for recovery and normal boot.

Good news!
This gets the voltage of the battery:
fastboot getvar battery-voltage

It says it's 4,32 V. If i remember right, this is around a fully charged battery. So probably it charged up when i left in Fastboot state for some hours. And the cycle/loop meant not that it cannot charge, but rather it does not need to charge.
Bad news!
Then what the heck is with my phone?

3,85V is the rated voltage, it is written on the battery. (I disassambled the phone.) Charged voltage is higher, discharged voltage is lower.

can you figure pin-out? you can charge with some universal cell phone charger like this http://cgi.ebay.com/152786628220

Why do i need it? Battery is charged, and phone charges it also in Fastboot.

Do you think it writes a wrong number? Is that possible? Hm. I have been trying so long, it should be dead now, if it would not charged. I think.

See the origial post's end. I just edited it. It says "boot" command is unkown. And that is very strange.

idk but we are still talking about previously working device without any software updates which is dying because of low battery, not about boot-looping device with software issues, right? so if it isn't software issue it must be hardware failure

Sadly you are right. There is only one exception. Once when i get it out of my pocket, i saw the stock recovery screen. I said "reboot system", or similar. (To start normally.) But as i see pictures of others recovery menu, there is nothing i could do wrong with. The worst would be the factory reset, but then it should still start, without my datas.

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text:
Google Account(and apps) not syncing on my Realme C2(Android 9)
My google account and app data are not syncing on my Realme C2 (Android 9). The data of a few apps like Chrome and Calendar is syncing and showing up when I select my google account under "Accounts and Sync", but the data of other important apps like Gmail, Drive, and Keep is not syncing. The "Sync Now" button is unresponsive.  I tried removing and re-adding the google account, clearing the data and cache of all google apps, uninstalling and reinstalling them, and rebooting the device. But nothing seems to work. Please help me with this.
Thanks a lot!!

The issue was lack of storage. The sync resumed when approximately 2 GB of storage space was available on my device.


text:
Hacking HoneyTab
I found this strange "anonymous" device: HoneyTab.
Never wishing to discuss whether it's worth to buy or not (it would be totally OT), my questions are simple and straight: does somebody know if this tablet can be rooted or not? Does somebody know if and how is it possible to upgrade its ROM to future versions of Android or just to modded ROMs?
I have little experience with HTC devices only but I never really understood if the same ROM can be used with multiple devices, and if rooting is a standardized procedure or not (I have Android on SD on my HD2, so it's rooted already)
Thank you.

How do I root my Android device? contains our collective knowledge on what devices can be rooted, with links to methods.  It's incomplete, of course, so if anyone knows how to root this tablet please add the info to the answer there, even if you post it here.
ROMs cannot generally be used with multiple devices.  Each device normally requires its own drivers and kernel, due to different hardware.
Rooting is also not standardized; it depends on how Android has been modified on your particular device, as well as how your bootloader behaves.  There are, however, methods of rooting that take advantage of exploits common to most flavors of a particular version of Android.  For example, "Gingerbreak" worked on most devices that had the original version of Android 2.3.  How do I root my Android device? contains a list of those generalized tools as well.
The device looks like it's not Google-certified, and from searching around it looks like very few people have it.  Information on it will be sparse and rooting that much harder if none of the common exploits work.

Has Honeycomb 3.2 been rooted yet, at least?

http://www.acertabletforum.com/forum/acer-iconia-tab-a500-help/1287-root-a501-honeycomb-3-2-a.html# looks like it's not yet rootable as of today

@djechelon Oops, I misread your first comment.  There are methods for rooting the Motorola Xoom on 3.2, and some other devices, but they look to be device-specific.  So I would guess that a general exploit for 3.2 has not been found, you're right.

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


text:
If I buy a tablet with Honeycomb 3.1, will I be able to upgrade it to 3.2? How about 4.0, 5.0, ...?
I am in the market for a tablet. However I am not clear the degree to which the hardware will be linked to a specific android version. For example, if I get the Motorola Xoom or the Galaxy Tab 10.1, will I be able to upgrade it to honeycomb 3.2?
Will there be limitations on future upgrades, and if so, on what time scale?

The Xoom already got 3.2 in the US, but this isn't really an easy question to answer. It could vary widely based on where you live, what specific tablet you have, and whatever Google decides to do with Android moving forward. I don't think you'll get much more than pure speculation, especially with regards to versions beyond Honeycomb.

We can't answer for any potential device, but known released/announced updates are added to the marked duplicate as we find them.  Hopefully that helps.

@Matthew I would urge you to consider opening this back up; this is not an exact duplicate because I am interested in the fundamental property of the hardware (e.g. is the ability to receive an update limited by hardware?) rather than 'when will device X get an update?'

@David We have other questions on Android's requirements. For 2.3 there is the CDD but there is no such document for 3.0, since it hasn't been released by Google.  There should be one for 4.0 when it comes out though.  Apart from that, Android is open-source and can theoretically be ported to any device.

There's really no way to answer this question. There are devices out there that got to version 1.6 and are at the end of the line. I have a DROID with Froyo (2.2) and don't expect to get any more OS updates.
It all depends on the hardware and, most importantly, how much effort the manufacturers and/or carriers want to put in to update the device. If the past is any indication, the answer there is "not much". They seem much more interested in selling their new phones. While Google and the manufacturers recently met and said that there will be more of an effort to support and update devices for at least 18 months, we've not seen the results of that. While they occasionally backpedal on announcements of "no more updates" it hasn't been very frequent.
If past performance is any indication, I think you can expect a few point releases, and perhaps a full release (to version 4.0) but beyond that I don't think is going to happen.
This is, of course, speculation, and this is now a fairly long non-answer answer to an unanswerable question.

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text:
Will I lose root access on my Incredible if I install the Gingerbread OTA update?
Basically what the title says. I rooted my phone with unrevoked (I am not sure if I used the "forever" version or not). Will installing the 2.3.4 Gingerbread OTA update from Verizon remove my root? I'm not running any special ROMs if that makes a difference.

You almost always lose root when installing an OTA update. I would keep an eye on RootzWiki or DroidForums for someone to confirm that it can be rooted or someone to release a rooted update.

Now that I think about it, I seem to recall installing an OTA update several months ago which didn't remove the root. Is there any reason why one update would remove root and another wouldn't?

@wawa - Yes. Note that the key words here are "almost always". There's always the chance that it will work out fine just like there's the chance that you can brick your phone beyond usability. Most updates only replace certain files making assumptions about what's leftover. If your root setup fits those assumptions, then you'll be fine. However, if you changed something and you make the OTA's assumptions now become bad assumptions, then you're likely going to be doing a lot of Googling figuring out how to get your device usable again.

Yes, what Cheuer said.
Installing an OTA while you're running a customized ROM in any way (even just rooted) pretty much always screws up root, sometimes even having a high risk of bricking your phone. NEVER install an OTA update while running customized software. If you ever want to go back to stock software, you need to go find the thread for your phone/ROM that tells you how to do this. Only after reverting back to stock should you attempt an OTA install.
Lastly, note that after an OTA update, you aren't always guaranteed to be able to root your phone again. Sometimes you're stuck unrooted.

I would recommend not installing the update while you have root. The manufacturer of the device could have changed something in the update which stops the root from working either intentionally or unintentionally. If this is the case there is a risk that the phone will be bricked (i.e. stop working). I would recommend seeing if you can unroot the device then perform the update and then put the root back on if you can.


text:
Protection from Malicious Intent
Is there an app, or will Google produce a system, where I can protect my Android device?
Imagine a soundboard app that's free, but it asks for your contact information. The average user might be naive and just click OK on permissions. About 24 hours later, they start receiving spam email, telemarketing phonecalls to home or mobile phone, or even direct mail to their street address. Now imagine that same app, but criminals wrote it and they now have access to your cameras or microphone. Sure, you opted in on permissions because you didn't know better, but now the criminals can listen in remotely at any time, or even watch you.
I want to permit apps to do certain tasks including camera or microphone usage, or even contact access, but I want to know exactly what's going on for that access. I want to know if it's selling or marketing with my identity information. I want to know if it's going to spy on me remotely.
EDIT: Bruce Schneier and others have commented on this problem recently here:
http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2010/08/eavesdropping_s.html

Rules #1 of internet access: Nothing is private and nothing is safe.

@Read - we can do better than that, can't we? I mean, do you post your street address in your StackExchange profile? You probably don't. Or how about your phone number? Probably not. That's the sort of thing I'm talking about. We need to have levels of control, and to know far more clearly with these apps what we are giving up.

Imagine even a camera app that does what it says it does as far as photos, such as make retro photos with a filter. But then someone makes a version almost like it, but forks it into something malicious, which then posts those photos on a website, exposing nudity and so on. See how this can get serious?

Google does do occasional audits. There were apparently some wallpaper apps recently that were doing nefarious stuff and were pulled from the Market and any phones they'd been installed on.
It's imperative that users pay attention to the permissions that are being requested (Why would a wallpaper need to know "Phone state" or my Contacts?) and simply not install anything that looks wonky. Pay attention to the ratings and the comments and, if something looks too good to be true, it probably is.
Everybody wants everything for free. The price of that is that your marketing demographics are being sold to anyone willing to pay for them. I don't begrudge developers the ability to make a profit.

Wallpaper apps that analyze my contacts. That's scary. Imagine an app activating one's camera or microphone without one knowing it -- even scarier.

The Security Audits in the market only bring advantage when you just pull your apps from the market. Also be careful with Apps from untrusted sources, for example the app could exploit a security bug in the OS and so get root rights. Then it would get all rights without asking you for permission. Probably such an app in the market would be found after a short time. But if you download an apk on the internet from an untrusted source you should be careful and think about if you really need it and can trust the source.
Another great project is Taintdroid Probably what you 're watching for. But at the moment i think you can only use it when you have a Nexus Devloper Phone.

Thanks for pointing out Taintdroid. Sounds like what we need is a Taintdroid device that sits out there, finding issues, and exposing them on the web for a blacklist that people could vote up or down or add comments about.

not a bad idea. But i think the larger problem at the moment for android is the fragmentation of different os versions around on the devices and the problems resulting. Mainly that you can't fix your os bugs because your manufacturer doesn't supply an update or if he does just months later.

I think one of the better ways to "know more" about an app would be to check out its reviews online - there are loads of Android Blogs, plus reviews written by users in the market comments. You can also check them out on sites like http://appbrain.com

It's easy for developers to create fake reviews, and cause negative reviews to scroll off. As well, if no one knows about a security issue because it's not been discovered yet, they won't mention it in a review. And last, you only get so many chars in a review and that limits what can be said.

You can't rely on reviews to tell you about flaws that a small minority of reviewers will be aware of. This XKCD cartoon puts the point pretty well... in reality, that 1 star review would be invisible under hundreds of other reviews http://xkcd.com/937/

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text:
How to prevent data extraction from rooted phone via adb?
I've a question regarding security in a rooted device.
Being superuser means that you can access the /data/data directory, and that's a lot of personal data (I think it is almost all the data there can be in the phone).
So if a rooted phone is stolen, anyone can connect to the device via adb and perform a complete "audit" of the data, including mail, sms, search and browser history, contacts, etc. It is in fact easier than with a non-rooted phone. I see a big vulnerability here.
Is there a way to prevent adb connecting to the phone like, for instance, a password?

The adb can connect to an android device only if "USB debugging" is enabled in Settings->Applications->Development. If this setting is disabled and a password lock is set for unlocking the device, there should be no worries.
Also there are many apps such 'Lookout' which provide the ability to remotely wipe data from a phone if it gets stolen.


text:
Turning off my android phone screen without actually turning it off
I have a problem with my J7 Pro(SM-j730F) when i power off the screen and then turn it on again it flickers and takes a bunch of turning on and turning off(Pressing the power button or using fingerprint then pressing the power button again) tries to get it working again, And when it finally turns on i'm good to go aslong as i don't turn my screen off again.
What i want is: To be able to lock my screen without it actually being turned off. And i have tried Always on display to keep the screen on but the reason it doesn't work is because there is like a frame where the screen turns off completely before it goes to Always on display, So something similar to Always On Display would be great but without the part where it turns off for a frame.

Please edit your question and describe in detail what you mean by "takes a bunch of lock and unlock tries".

@Robert done...


text:
The normal directories of storage of this app is empty. Does it got anything to do with my phone being unrooted?
There is an educational app in my android phone that allows me to download videos for studying them offline. I have downloaded a lot of videos and have my storage filling up to the brink because of it.
I would like to transfer those videos from my phone to my android emulator on my PC.
I have opened

Internal Shared Storage > Android > data > com.emedicoz.app

It turns out to be empty! I have got 3.5 GB of data for this particular app and there is nothing showing over here!
I have accessed data of other apps using this similar directory and been successful at it. But this app's data shows empty.
I have tried backing up this app using third party apps but they are not successful in backing up any data more specifically any videos. They only backup some configuration and settings.
How do I access the data of this app? My phone is not rooted and I don't have an SD card on it. Does it have any bearing?
PS: I have Android 9 PKQ1.18

The linked question might seem technical. If you can see data on "Internal Shared Storage" without root, then it's actually the "external storage". However, there's also "internal storage" that can only be accessed with root access.

I solved my problem. My device was unrooted which is why I can't view any files in the directory. I tested root access with an android emulator for the app and Tadaa! I am able to access ALL the files!


text:
What is the best dual boot Android OS for getting easy root and unroot access?
I have installed Android x86 on my Windows 10 HP Laptop. It was "Android-x86_64-9.0-r2.iso".
I ran it on my PC and it opened rooted.
I installed an app I required. The app has got lots of videos that are supported for playing only on an unrooted device.So, I couldn't play the app's videos.
What I did:

I enabled developer's options and disabled root access in it. I still couldn't play the videos.

Enable Developper Mode. On the developer's options, enable full root access. Run the terminal emulator. Use the followings commands :

su

rm /system/bin/su

rm /system/xbin/su

After typing these commands as: These files are read only files type of message. The last command resulted in a question y/N and after writing 'y', I still got the former message.
None of these methods worked. I need an OS that gives me both root access and unroot access as and when I require. This is quite easy in Android emulators as they have a single option on setting which can enable or disable root access. But my app is not supported on emulators. Hence, the need for OS.
PS: I don't know if this is the correct site for my question. I couldn't find very appropriate tags. Please suggest the correct website.Thank you.
PS: I am asking regarding whether other OS might be suitable for what I need. Like PrimeOS, BlissOS, RemixOS, etc.

First you have to be aware that what device is considered "rooted" by an app depends on the app. Some apps may consider a device rooted, other not and the other way around.
Second the term "rooted" is often used in a very generalized way, in the meaning of "the system is not genuine" or "the system seems to be manipulated". If the device offers a su binary to get root access or not is usually just one of multiple factors an app will check.
Furthermore emulators and custom "ROMs" like Androidx86 are usually always detected as "rooted" devices, because they are not official Google Android devices. Only physical Android devices, certified by Google can pass the "Google's SafetyNet" check which is commonly the first test performed by an app for a rooted device.
Therefore depending on what checks the app performs you might not succeed no matter what modifications you do to Androidx86. The app may always detect the system as "rooted" (not genuine).
The only real way to bypass this root check is usually to reverse engineer the app, check what "root" check it performs and modify the app using apktool or Frida so that the root check returns the desired result (only works if there is not a back-end involved that checks e.g. the Google SafetyNet check result).

I don't know what root checks the app performs nor I do know how do I go about knowing that. Any suggestions ? Similarly, I don't get what modifications I would have to do using Frida and apktool. Please elaborate.

This all depends on the app, each app is different and thus require different measures to bypass the check. There is no general answer how to do it.

Is there any other Android OS that may be made Rooted and Unrooted as per convenience ?

Please re-read the section that mentions Google's SafetyNet. Only on real physical Google certified devices you can be sure that an app considers it as not rooted. There is no official Android for x86 PCs available. All those systems are unofficial and thus can be considered non-genuine. If an app considered such a system as non-rooted depends on what the app checks.

I am asking about PrimeOS, BlissOS, PhoenixOS, RemixOS, etc ? these options not of Androidx86. Google is not owning the rest of them, is it?


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How can I disable the button on the earphones?
I keep accidentally pressing the button on the earbuds when it's in my pocket.
Any of these would be great for me:

Disable the button only when the device is locked
Disable the button always

Low-tech solution, but I just wrapped a bit of black tape round the button on the headphone cable on my last phone, worked a treat!

Headset blocker will disable those buttons.  It's a widget, not an app.

Thanks. Will accept if I can't find anything that will automatically do it when device is locked.

This one is free.

Try Galaxy Music [Button Disabler]. It is the best solution for locking the music button.
It costs .99 cent though.

all_licenses: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5/


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Best Car stereo for my android phone
I just got a HCT EVO and was thinking about getting car stereo with bluetooth, car mount, and car charger to go with it (for my 2005 Civic).
First of all, are there any products that will do all of these?  A mount/charger that can also be hooked into the car audio?  It doesn't even have to be bluetooth if it can just directly hook my phone into the car speakers, but I haven't been able to find anything like this.
Otherwise, I am having trouble finding a minimal bluetooth device... I don't really need anything features except routing bluetooth to my car audio, because my phone does everything else.
I am also concerned that I've read some reviews that say they only work with the phones bluetooth calling and not with playing media.  I'd like to be able to listen to pandora in the car.  How can I make sure that when I see "bluetooth" I can know it supports both?
Can anyone give me some tips on what to look for or where to look?  Are these things hard to install yourself?

Check that the device supports A2DP and AVRCP.  You'll find many handsfree kits that connect to your stereo support those (it's what I use) - check out Parrot's range for examples.
Then you can use a separate mount and charger so that when you replace your phone you don't have to replace everything.

You might just use the audio jack.  I know this works with headphones when making calls, maybe it would work with playing the audio through speakers too?

Except I don't have one :-(.  There don't seem to be any cheap ways around this either.

For the "minimal bluetooth device" -- It sounds like your minimum is streaming Bluetooth audio (calls & media) to the stereo. For that, I've found the Motorola T505 to work well with Android. It pairs via Bluetooth to your phone and has a built in FM transmitter to send audio to your stereo. It handled music and calls very well on my Samsung Vibrant with 2.1 & 2.2 so your EVO should be fine. As far as redundant features -- Only that it also functions as a standalone speakerphone, which I considered more a perk than problem.


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What is the Streaming Decryption setting in Google Drive?
I notice a "Streaming Decryption" option under Encryption Settings. For me, it was not selected by default. The description under this setting is a little unclear:

Decrypt documents into a stream incrementally.

So my question is what does this mean and what does it do? Does it mean that a given document is only partially decrypted (if there is such a thing) while it is open? Should the average user pay any attention to this setting? I found this HowTo on CNET but it does not explain the setting.
I don't recall whether this was a setting under the former (i.e. pre-Drive) Google Docs app.

It sounds like only the portion visible on-screen is decrypted, possibly to limit damage if the unencrypted data is intercepted or recovered?

That sounds reasonable. It seems a side effect of that could be a reduction in the amount of data being transferred.

Goggle Drive gives you some security options regarding your documents:

You can choose to encrypt all offline documents (that is, documents
stored on your device);
And can also choose to decrypt documents incrementally as they are
streamed to your phone, by selecting the Streaming Decryption, thus having just a small portion of the document decrypted when accessing it. Kinda like watching a compressed video.

Sadly enough couldn't find any official documentation to support my answer on Google, but here's some relevant links:
Access and Edit Files with Google Drive
Google Drive - View files offline in the Google Drive Android app

What this means is that Google decrypts as it streams so that if a file is cut off from streaming midway through, there is still a secure decrypted part remaining thus limiting the damage to the file if it is intercepted.
This Guy works For Google so i think he know whats he saying (GApps)/
Websites used:
http://www.quora.com/Google-Drive/What-does-Settings-Streaming-decryption-do-for-the-Google-Drive-Android-app


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Does CyanogenMod 7.2 kernel support swap memory?
My current kernel (whatever is built into stock Froyo 2.2 ROM for Verizon Motorola Droid X) does NOT support swap memory.
Does CyanogenMod 7.2 kernel support swap memory? Does that depend on device-specific build?

The cyanogenmod team feels that swap doesn't serve it's purpose on an Android device:

This question is hotly debated, but you almost definitely do not need swap or compcache...

You can read all about it at the Swap and Compcache - CyanogenMod Wiki!

To answer you question directly, by default the swap and Compcache schemes are disabled, but if you still feel the need to use them, above link provides you with a how-to.
So, yes, the CyanogenMod 7.2 supports swap and its usage needs to be activated.
The swap and Compcache schemes usage depends on the device and its support for it.

As a side note, the CyanogenMod 7.x is Gingerbread-based not Froyo, as can be read here:

After 3 rounds of release candidates, and squashing a few more bugs in the stabilization branch of CyanogenMod 7, the newest stable iteration of the Gingerbread-based CM7 is now being released.

Swap is not suitable for Android smartphones/tablets as realistically speaking it could potentially wear and tear of the flash nand storage due to read/write (swapping in/out) to partition.

Agree, and it can be read on the link provided, that close to no gain comes from the swap or Compcache schemes usage!

@Zuul - my main problem is that (1) none of the apps I care about (e.g. stock browser) support the behavior described in CM Wiki linked - when the browser is killed by memory manager, it is next reloaded with empty page instead of whatever tabs I had open. Never mind keeping the page from reloading so that Google Reader does't lose the article I had open. (2) After playing some memory intensive games, it takes forever to re-launch my Zeam launcher. It's possible swap won't help; but I'm interested in trying. VERY helpful answer, thanks!

So we're stuck with apps taking 5 minutes to open every time you switch between them?  They should leave it up to the users to decide whether it's useful for them.  Android's intended behavior of killing apps and apps storing their state so they can be reloaded gracefully is wishful thinking, not reality.

Also that link is dead.  Any mirrors?

@endolith I've updated the link, thank you for the warning!

@Zuul: Thanks.  It seems CM7.2 doesn't support swap at all, though, and a different kernel needs to be installed.

Short answer:
No. Kernel support is missing. You need to replace the kernel.
Longer answer - check answer from Zuul.


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Application to slide from area to start application?
I had an application before I formatted which would do something awesome: you simply slid from an active area on the screen, no matter what application you're in, and you were presented with about 12 different spots you could fill which would launch applications.
The problem is, I can't remember what this application is called. Can anyone remind me?

One thing you can do is log in to the android market web and go through your history of installed applications. It will show you everything that you installed (purchased and free)

Somehow, it's not there, believe me: I looked :(

SwipePad. Found it: https://market.android.com/details?id=mobi.conduction.swipepad.android


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Are there guidelines on how much free RAM a phone should have - specifically Samsung Galaxy S?
I have a Samsung Galaxy S (AT&T Captivate) that is rooted.  I have various ways to tweak the amount of free RAM the OS leaves on the phone.  The default is 48 MB, but I was wondering if I could actually go lower without impacting phone performance.  Are there guidelines posted anywhere, or that can be deduced based on knowledge of the Android platform?  Or should I trust that the default settings are appropriate?  I understand that when it comes to free RAM, more isn't necessarily better, but I understand that there is still a threshold that I don't want to dip below.
I'm running a 2.3.6 Gingerbread based ROM.  For what it's worth, I'm running the Zeam launcher.

In the "linux world", what android is at its core, free RAM is wasted RAM. The system will attempt to use up as much RAM as needed. If more is needed, and there are applications that are no longer requiring the RAM it has allocated, the system will free up the RAM from that application an allocate it to the new application that needs it.
Having less RAM available will not necessarily affect the performance. What will affect it is if it frequently needs to free up RAM on the system for other applications. meaning if there a lot of running applications that are Active, and require the RAM, then you can see performance issues. This is because the the system needs to save the state of the application, free up the RAM and then allocate the freed RAM to a new application.
As for what a "low point" might be, I can't say. I have NEVER watched my available RAM, and never really experienced any performance issues because of RAM. for the record, I have the same device (but the T-Mobile version).

How does RAM on Android work?
First, we need to understand a bit about how RAM works on Android. If you are familiar with Windows computers, you will understand that more and more RAM is usually better and having enough free RAM will be necessary for the system to function normally.
However, according to HowToGeek, with Android, it works a little differently. Android is based on the Linux kernel, an operating system operating under a completely different set of standards than a Windows PC. And when it comes to RAM, it's completely different from Windows: Free RAM is the amount of RAM that is wasted.
So, on Android, you do not need to clean up RAM for other applications to run. The process is automatic and very smooth. RAM is not something you need to think of on most Linux devices.


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HTC People Widget - Improve Touch Accuracy?
I have HTC's people widget on one of my home screens.  I like its functionality but sometimes when I touch a contact, another one gets selected. A completely different contact gets the green selection box and it starts to call them.  With my luck this usually results in calling my parents at some ungodly hour.
I've used touch visualizers to see if that area of my touch screen is having problems but all looks fine. The people widget is the only thing that seems to be affected.
I've also tried removing and re-adding the widget.  Is there a fix for this? Or a comparable replacement?

I believe I observed a similar issue... I simply waited a few seconds and then pushed the screen side-to-side without leaving the screen. I saw the widget sort of refresh with the contacts back in order.

You could try Call Confirm, which gives a popup to confirm if you want to call said person.
I haven't tried it myself, but I've heard it is recommended for accidental touch screen issues.
QR Code for Call Confirm:

It's not that I accidentally touch the widget and call someone.  It's that I touch the widget to call person A but the software has a bug in that is selects person B to call.

There probably isn't much you can do to fix HTC's widget. On the other hand you can purchase LauncherPro Plus which has its own People Widget which works perfectly fine for me.
LauncherPro QR Code:

Otherwise you can look around on the Market and I'm sure you'll find another People Widget somewhere.


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Power draw from GPS - Does granularity affect amount of power drawn?
We all know that GPS draws a considerable amount of battery power.  Does anyone know of any studies that test the "granularity" of a GPS signal with how much battery is consumed?
I'm not talking about the device-GPS vs cell network triangulated GPS either, the applications in Android can select a distance (1 meter, 5 meters, 500 meters, etc) at which they will be notified of a changed location.  I imagine that regardless of what this value is set at, the GPS is actively getting a new location very rapidly, and only notifying the app as soon as it wants.
Does anyone know of any studies for power draw with different GPS settings?  Thanks!

GPS is a passive technology - it doesn't get notified of a new position, it works it out by listening to the GPS signals it receives and doing some maths.
The options in GPS apps that allow you to choose the minimum distance are there to make your location appear more stable - small variations in your calculated location would otherwise make for lots and lots of waypoints on your track (if that's what you're recording), making for a much increased filesize.
Depending on what your app does when you change position, you might get some power savings by increasing this value, but that would be down to the app doing less with the position once it has it, rather than by getting your position less frequently.
The Glympse app, for example, continually sends your position to the Glympse servers.  If you could choose how often to update that position you could maybe save some power, but you wouldn't be saving any power on the GPS side of things.

Matt, thanks for the answer.  I assumed that the GPS was basically a linear cost, and the rate at which it was awakening my listener was the real variant in this.  Do you know of any research on power drawn for a constant GPS who's not moving vs one which is constantly triggering listener updates?

@Adam: Sorry, I don't know of anything that will give you absolute numbers.  If you accept that the GPS is a fixed power cost, then you would assume that the secondary cost of doing 'whatever you do with the updates' is going to drop to almost zero if you don't move.  YMMV - best thing is probably to test it out yourself :)

First reason, the GPS can reduce power consumption if the GPS is turned off, however if the GPS is turned off and the user moves too far away, the GPS will have to redo a lot of initialization calculations (which can take about 5 minutes in typical GPS device, though can be slightly faster if the device knows an approximate location or if it does not need to be too accurate), this initialization wastes a lot of power and so Android usually keeps the GPS turned on for a while. The GPS driver uses those parameters to make decisions whether to turn off GPS or keeping it turned on will be much more economical.
Second reason, poorly written applications are much more difficult to write with how Android's GPS API is. If the GPS driver simply fired callbacks as fast as it can, then poorly written software can just process as much as it can, instead of filtering only those that it needs. Also, this kind of API forces programmer to explicitly think about their frequency and accuracy requirement, and allow the driver to better manage power vs accuracy tradeoff.
In many cases, in areas with high cell tower density, Android might decide to simply use network location and on other places to use GPS when the network location is unreliable. All that can be done transparently to application programmers.


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Locale powersave plugin & Power Control widget
I use Locale app with powersave plugin. 3G is usually switched off except  during scheduled syncing to save power.
There are occassional situations when I would like to use 3G and I would like switch it on by hand. I would like to use Power Control widget.
I have two problem with it.

I can't reenable 3G that powersave plugin disabled previously
I cannot override the behaviour of the Locale. In the Default profile 3G shouldn't be allowed so it would disable it all the time when it's enabled.

For now I can't found any Power Conrol plugin for Locale.
Do you have any idea how to solve this problem or do you have any workaround?
Thanks,
Hubi

I am the developer of Locale.
To get started, please read this article on our website about toggling 3G which should answer your questions: http://feedback.twofortyfouram.com/forums/5655-locale-feedback/suggestions/67867-3g-support-for-network-setting?ref=title
From that article, I think you'll find that using APNDroid will be the best solution: it is free, has a Locale plug-in, and it contains a widget that can be used to manually toggle Internet access on the phone.

This is a working solution for 3G. Do you have some similar solution for wifi?


text:
Do I need to reboot my HTC Desire periodically?
I've had my HTC Desire for a couple of months now and it is awesome! (A huge improvement to my previous phone... Nokia 3315)
Though recently, I've realised that the phone semi-freezes more and more often - ie. when swiping between homescreens it will either pause/freeze and I will have to re-swipe to get it to change screens. Or worse, it just won't respond to any further swipes and I have to lock the screen then unlock to get the phone back into action.
Got quite annoyed at this (was probably happening once or twice a day) so I thought it might help to turn it off and on again. So I did - not sure if it was a placebo effect but it seems to have helped a bit?
So given that this is my first smartphone, I was wondering if it is 'normal' to need to restart the phone every so often. If so, how often is 'normal'? If not, what can I do to diagnose/fix this problem?

every computer needs a soft reset? Yeah, after a kernel update one needs to reboot (which is why and when I reboot mine 3-4 times a year). Kernel updates rarely happen to Android devices... "If it ain't broken, don't fix it" :)

This was me about three years ago saying this. I've learned a bit more since then at least. Agree with the motto!

In my experience, for some devices, it helps to reboot the device about once a week.  I don't know the exact technical implications of this but rebooting seems to free up the device in some way and make it respond quicker.  This will not always be the case though, right now on my EVO i'm at 391 hours (16 days) of uptime and I don't notice any freezing or slowness.  On my Hero I would though so I rebooted every-so-often.  If you haven't already you may want to look into rooting and flash a custom-rom on your phone as usually that will give you better performance and battery-life.  I have found this to be true since with both my Android devices and my previous Windows Mobile phones.
And while I don't recommend it, you can look into ATK for Android or some other task killer and see if this helps.  You can make your own decision if you want to use a task killer - some people think they're great while others think they don't help.
Edit - I went to find some links both for and against task killers and mostly I found against.  Here are two that lean against them but also talk about ways to use them.
http://lifehacker.com/#!5650894
http://www.androidcentral.com/how-properly-set-and-use-task-killer-oh-yes-i-went-there

When should I reboot?
If you notice any of the following, it is probably time for a reboot:

It takes a long time for an app to launch
A system service keep crashing
It takes a long time to switch in between activities (i.e. pressing the back button)
It takes a long time for the lock screen to appear after pressing the power button

A lot of people almost never reboot their phones (once a couple of months) and they function perfectly. Most of those people are not serious android users though, they pretty much just use it as a phone (calling/texting) and thats about it. If you are a more serious user that plays a lot of games or likes to use a ton of apps then you will need to reboot more often, perhaps once every week or every couple of days.
If you have a newer device you also don't need to reboot it as much because it probably has a faster processor and more RAM so it can handle a larger load for longer. Older devices need to be rebooted a lot more than newer devices.
Why does my device slow down?
Your device slows down because the processor is busy doing work it doesn't need to do. After a while, processes running in the background (services) start to pile up. Android is pretty efficient about knowing when to keep services and activities alive. in the older builds of Android, the system is a little bit more lenient about what it keeps running. In theory it isn't really bad to have a ton of Apps running at once because Android pauses all of the Apps that are in the background. Now, what stinker developers do is they have their app start up a bunch of services when their app starts up. This is really bad because the services will keep running even after the app is no longer visible.
Android is pretty picky about it's memory. Android wants to have it's memory as close to full as possible. Android is pretty efficient at cleaning up memory leaks created by processes, so you really don't need to be worrying about your memory usage especially on newer devices. Most people think that when their memory is full, it's a bad thing. That is totally wrong and I will show you why.
If you know a little bit about electronics, you should know that RAM is basically just a massive array of bytes. The processor needs to run an instruction to load a byte into a section of the array. When the processor runs instruction, it takes power (in this case battery power). When the RAM is almost full it doesn't really hurt the battery; you want it to be almost full because the system doesn't want to keep pushing bytes into the register, it wants to work with what it has. When you destroy all of your apps that were just running, Android automatically clears the memory that those applications were hogging. Then the Android system goes "oh, where did my Sync Service just go? Better start it up again!" Then your device has to reload all of the RAM that you just cleared. This takes a lot of power and drains your battery. So you might kill a couple of services that were CPU hoggers but you are killing a lot of services that Android was actually managing efficiently.
Myths about 'Memory Boosters'

Ha! Take that system apps that were running in the background, thank you App Killer for freeing up all of that memory for me!

When I hear this I go just about nuts, and so does every else on this site. Do not constantly use an App Killer to kill all of your idle processes! What you should really be saying is this:

Ha! Take that battery! Have fun loading all of those services up again from scratch!

Now, there is a way to use "App Killers" effectively. You should only use them to kill background services that have gone rouge (eating up massive amounts of CPU). This happens more often on older devices.
Unless you have a reason why you don't want to reboot your phone when it is being slow, I would reboot it instead of running an App Killer. Rebooting does eat up a little bit of battery as well, but it will most defiantly kill any service that could have been hogging your CPU.

Friends don't let friends use App Killers.

My device is still slow after reboot, help?
If your device is still slow after reboot, then you should go through your apps and delete the ones you don't need. A lot of those apps are probably starting background services and slowing your device down.

If anything needs to be added, or if anything here is inaccurate feel free to edit. Constructive editing is welcome.

Thanks for the fantastic answer. I knew a few of those kernels of info but how Android works with memory was a bit past me. Need to do some actual reading on the OS it seems. At least it appears I can keep my device running for a while.

Do not try to defragment an SD card Yeah. What makes that storage type different from "internal SDCard" and "internal storage"? Both are types of FLASH storage. // Comprehensive answer beside that -- only that the OP did solely ask for reboot, not about "memory boosters" and "task killers" (but it looks like he's thankful for those details, though :) For the "device getting slow": My device is getting slow, apps start misbehaving/crashing. What can I do?


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I checked 'use as default' when choosing the default launcher, but now I can't start ADW.Launcher any more
I installed ADW.Launcher on my Galaxy S running Froyo (2.2) to check it out.
When it was installed, every time I pressed the 'home' button, I got a choice which launcher to start.
In the end I found this irritating, I choose the default installed one, and checked the 'use as default' check box.
All fine, but now, I can't seem to be able to start the ADW.Launcher any more.
No icon in my application list and none on my home screens.
How do I start ADW.Launcher again ( without re-installing it ). I verified that it is still installed on my device.

You need to remove the default setting for the Launcher application.
Menu | Settings | Applications | Manage applications | "All" | Launcher | Clear defaults

There is an app on the market called Home Switcher (or if your on Froyo 2.2). It allows you to easily switch or launch another Launcher.

This is a great app, I've used it with my NookColor quite often


text:
Prevent volume rocker from disabling silent mode
On my Galaxy S2 Skyrocket, everytime I bump the volume rocker the phone comes out of silent mode. I hate this. The only way I want my phone going into or coming out of silent mode with a hard button is by holding the power until the modal shows up. Is there any way to prevent the volume rocker from knocking the sound back on when in silent mode?

There are some apps that will do this for you:
RingGuard: https://market.android.com/details?id=com.x475aws.android.ringguard&hl=en
Volume Locker: https://market.android.com/details?id=com.hourdb.volumelocker&feature=related_apps

Volume Locker did the trick, but other frustrations with Android pushed me onto WP8.


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changing x10 mini pro keyboard from querty to azerty CM7 pro's ROM
I've just managed to install CM7 Ron on my Xperia x10 mini pro
but when I type with the physical/slide keyboard I can't seem to change it from querty to azerty
any ideas?

You may want to try 3rd-party keyboard apps that support transliteration of physical keyboards.
I've previously used AnySoftKeyboard, and with the appropriate language pack (e.g. French with has the AZERTY layout) it will transliterate physical keyboard as well.

I found out how to do it, slightly harder than your answer most likely but it corrects the problem rather than suppress it
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=18283445&postcount=21

@MikeBryant The drawback of doing it "the hard way" is that reverting back to QWERTY layout is just as difficult (and requires a reboot of the phone.)  With alternate keyboard, it's just a matter of picking a different layout in app settings.


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Update Market Application to Google Play Market Application
I have the problem with latest update which re-brands "Market" app
to "Google Play Market" app.
At one moment "Market" icon disappeared from both home screen and applications.
I was seeking for the solution to that, found some (weird at the time) "Play Market" update installed
and have uninstalled it. This brought back "Market" application.
Later I have seen that this was a silent patch which I should not uninstall!
Problem is, that, when I start "Market" app it ONLY displays following page in browser:
https://play.google.com/about/android-developer-policies.html
I am stuck here with this page, and the app is not updating again to "Play Market"
Does anyone know how to resolve this?

Have you tried clearing the data for the Market? Settings->Applications->Market->Clear Data button

Yes, tried that...

Try clearing the data for the Market and rebooting the phone.  Then log in to the Market, wait a minute, then back out and continue using your phone with the internet connection active.  Hopefully the Market should update itself within a few minutes.
Or, you can just download and install the .apk.  I rely on Android Police for the latest version; they've posted 3.9.16 here.

Thank you very much.
Problem was a big Android nonsense.
I was connected to internet via USB pass-through.
Once I turned on WiFi option (with no internet) it worked and updated instantly!
Cannot believe this!


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Is it possible to connect a USB microphone to an Android phone or tablet?
Blue makes a prosumer mic that you can connect directly to an iPod or iPhone via the dock port. I would love to have the same capability to do something similar for an Android phone or tablet. This would be really useful for field recording. I know that some tablets have support for various USB accessories to be plugged in, but I don't know if the OS can handle a microphone. Is this possible using existing or near future (Ice Cream Sandwich) hardware/OS combinations?

Note that I don't plan on using the aforementioned Mikey. I would be using a Zoom H2 (http://www.zoom.co.jp/english/products/h2/) which is a field recorder that doubles as a USB mic.

The range of USB device types supported "as is" by Android is limited and does not include microphones.
On the other hand, Android has the capability to work with an unlimited range of USB devices via their 'open accessories' sdk/kit/framework.  This was added in Android 3.0.
I believe they had to do it this way: existing USB devices require driver support and they can't go adding all those drivers to Android (which is a static image).  The open accessory framework will allow for devices that can be supported without loading a Linux driver.
So, you can't just go and buy a USB microphone and plug it into your Android device, but I expect we will soon start seeing USB accessories that are specifically designed to work with Android.

+1 upvote because this is something I'm interested in having worked as a radio producer and an interest in music.

"they can't go adding all those drivers to Android"  Isn't it just a single driver for all USB audio devices?

Apparently it is now possible, but only in specific apps with custom drivers, as the OS doesn't support it:

USB Audio Recorder PRO (Android Market)

The Android app USB Audio Recorder PRO allows you to record and playback audio using class-compliant USB audio devices on your Android phone or tablet! eXtream Software Development has written a custom USB audio driver from scratch because Android does not support USB audio (even Android 4.1 contrary to popular believe!).
USB Audio driver for android
  Today, there are many USB audio devices offering a rich feature set and high-end audio quality. In addition, there are many Audio apps. But none of them can access external devices, because there exist no API.
We developed a low level API, which allows app developer to support USB devices.

No, it's not supported on any Android version up to and including 4.0.3. (I've just tested this with my Zoom H4n and Asus TF101 upgraded to 4.0.3.)
There's no reason it can't be added in a future version, or maybe a third-party port. The driver exists in Linux, so it would just need to be included in Android's Linux kernel build and then given some interface for applications to get at the device.
It's still possible to use the H2 as a field recorder and then turn on its mass storage interface to access the recordings from a tablet or phone. It's not quite the same, and not useful for (say) Skype, but you could still use it for a record-edit-upload workflow.


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Can I share my Google Play "cloud" music with a family member?
I've uploaded all of our music to Google's "music in the cloud". I can play it on my Android phone (Droid X). I'd like my wife to be able to play it as well on her HTC Incredible).
Is this allowed?
How do I do it?
(One way would be for her to log in as me but that seems like it might cause problems with both of us logged into my account).

Any music you purchase via Google Play Store or upload via Google Music Manager application is tied to whichever Google account you selected within the app under Menu -> Settings -> Google Play account.  Starting with Android 2.2 (a.k.a. Froyo) you can add multiple Google accounts on Android devices (phones, tablets, Google TVs, etc.)  Therefore if your relatives' handset/tablet supports multiple Google accounts, you can add your own account under Settings -> Accounts & sync on their device, and then within their Play Music app's settings you should be able to change the account to yours.  The music should then be available on their device to stream/download.

Isn't this option granting the family member/friend full access to the user's account?

@Dror: Yes, but it's the only way to do it. You can't share the music across accounts.

@Dror Alternatively, you can create a new Google account specifically for music purchases and add it to both your and your wife's phones. That way personal stuff like email and calendars can stay separate while music (and maybe books as well) can go on the shared account. Just don't forget to switch accounts in Play Store before buying music or books.

Using the Google music uploader tool, you can also download all (Purchased only, I believe) music from any given Google Play Music account.  You could then switch accounts (or better yet, a different computer), and upload that music to a different Google Music account.
It would be a manual sync process, as the uploader tool won't automatically download purchased songs.

You can also download music you uploaded yourself but only up to 2 times, AFAIR.

The 2 download limit only applies if you download from the web client, the uploader tool does not have that restriction.  http://support.google.com/googleplay/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1233029

Is this practice allovied by the licence?

The original question was referring to music that the user uploaded themselves to the cloud, it's unclear, but I'd wager the new "Auto Matching" feature may further muddy the waters somewhat.  I'd call it "Questionable"

Two phones logged into the same account work OK in Play Music. I have set it up this way here. The only restriction is that only one can be playing, or have a track in the queue, at the same time. Clear the queue and the other phone can start playing.

The one-access limitation applies to Google home devices, too.

These answers seem outdated.  In my experience you CAN now share playlists with anyone who is a Google Play member.  However, in my experience those playlists only work with songs that are available for purchase from Google Play.  Private or collectors music that I've uploaded to the Cloud myself seem to break the playlist even if I've made the playlist public.   They can see the list but when they try to play it nothing happens.

@Brandorf - it's a good idea and I looked into it, but you can not share a single Google account among many users.  See here:
https://support.google.com/a/answer/33330?hl=en
Google Play does let you share Streaming Music that you subscribe too though.  AFAIK you can not share any purchased music, whether purchased from Google Play or otherwise.

I have dealt with the same issue. Wanting my wife to have the same access to my almost 4K songs without her having full access to my main Google account. Remember, Sharing your google password is a NO NO. Even with a family member. It give access to more than you can imagine. Web history, every photo you've taken, downloaded, or deleted. Web history, location history, and text, call, ability to track you via GPS, remote everything, and or wipe, lock, or completely erase.... and thats just your phone. Computer, Tablet, even track what you were doing on a friends computer even if your on the other side of the earth. If your logged in, more data is being collected than you think. Even if you think you know. And its all accessible. By you, Google, anyone who has your email address and password, and now (since a year ago bill passed) the Government. The ability to secretly track, take pics, video, and record audio, when your phone looks like its off. Unless your batteries off, its possible. Just knowing your email address, begins an array of info linking to info on you personally. Ever googled your email addresses? Scary. So with that being said, you shouldn't just log in with here phone, giving her access to your music because you cant separate everything else listed above. Its so scary, I dont even want to know my own Google Password. LOL. The only ways to share your music library is to...
A... Download your entire music library, log out, log in to her google music, then upload that folder. Note: It will be a large file. Even Zipped. (Ext. HD suggested) AND you can only download your music twice. EVER. one song or everything.
B... Upload your Music folder (once downloaded) to your Google Drive. Thats a Google Feature that you CAN SHARE with other Google accounts. Any type of files. Pictures, music, documents, or extensive that only special programs can open. From there, she could pick songs and play them one at a time, or down load them to her phone, or DL/UL to her Play music.
C..... I really like the shared Google account option. DL/Up load your music to a NEW Google account and share everything from Music, Books, and Emails. You can even pick what you want to share (sync) on your phone with that account, Giving access to Photos, and what ever. Just remember not to use the same password for the new account. (That make the whole point useless)
D..... What I have done so far is, download or buy music online with my computer, and upload it all to MY play music, KEEPING the music files on my Hard drive so, if she wants any music I have, I just log-in to her account, and upload it from the same source I uploaded to my account with.
F it..... I'm taking my music, and uploading it to my own server.Then I can do what I want with my music. So, neaaaa (Sticks tongue out)
It does stink that you cant simply share music like you can contacts, pics, or documents. Before the internet was dominated with massive servers, the web was mainly peer to peer. So with that being said, I support Torrent client software, and the index search engines that bring us all together. Long Live pirate Bay and its developers. (whom sit behind bars because other people share stuff with one another online) And these guys just made finding things to share simple, without uploading or sharing anything copyrighted themselves. Google Pirate bay justice for more info. You cant write your name on everything. I paid, Its mine, and I like to share. As long as you "Be Fair, when you Share"

This answer is quite rambly and almost half of it is irrelevant to the question. It's great that you have some good suggestions, but try to stay on topic. This is a Q&A site, not a forum, so answers have to be focused and relevant.


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Access Android device's file system over Bluetooth or Wi-Fi
I'm looking for a way to access the file system of an Android device (Nexus S) wirelessly, as its USB port has become unfit for anything but charging. Ideally, I'd like the same functionality as offered by connecting the phone to a PC with a USB cable.

Over Wi-Fi
Install a small app SwiFTP FTP Server. (original link 'dead' - 2012-09-22, see 'http://ppareit.github.com/swiftp/' instead ) Just, setup username & password. After tapping Start button, your device will become FTP server & the app will give you URL (handy if you don't know device IP & FTP URL format). On PC, you can use any FTP client software to access file system of device. Windows Explorer works, too. You can also create a network drive in computer. For example, you can visit this in address bar of Windows Explorer:
ftp://192.168.1.10:2121/

Here, 192.168.1.10 is IP of Android device & 2121 is port on which FTP server is working (you can configure port in app, too). Visiting it will ask you username & password. Enter what you specified in app. Done!
The app will not give you URL if device is not connected to PC using external Wi-Fi router, but it works in those situation too. If you've made device Wi-fi Hotspot & connected PC with Ad-hoc network, then you'll have to find device IP by yourself (ipconfig /all command is fine with Windows). It really works as long as you've IP of device (I've tested it by myself). Just, use this IP in FTP URL & visit it.
The Interesting Thing: As FTP is universal standard, this method will work with any PC, Mac. That's not true for Samba file share, AirDroid etc.
Over Bluetooth
There's no need of external app. If Bluetooth software on PC supports OBEX FTP, you can do this directly. If you've issues with stock bluetooth services, install Bluetooth File Transfer app. It supports both OBEX FTP and OPP. Means, you can do both-side file system access: device to PC & PC to device!

Notice that ftp is an inherently insecure protocol...

@miniBill Enter FTPS or FTPES which are almost similar to FTP, but they have compatibility issues. For most of home users, getting things done matters more... not full-time security. Occasionally, file encryption etc can be used to transfer sensitive data (use BoxCryptor without internet).

Security is not that important, on a LAN. But what about public wifi hotspots?

@miniBill The answer also includes MobileAP based solution which is available everywhere.

The "Bluetooth File Transfer" by Medieval software linked in this answer has some serious drawbacks: I found that it would not allow me to browse the whole filesystem, only one portion that it decided to default to, meaning that all of my SD-stored media was inaccessible.

Not exactly "accessing the filesystem", but you could try AirDroid. It has a really nice file manager.

With Samba you can access the files like a network share.
I think it requires a rooted phone though.
Should be better than FTP, and it should also be better than USB in that the phone can use the card in the same way (you don't need a specific mode)

There are many ways, you can use ADB over wifi, run an FTP or SSH server on the phone, or use Dropbox.
The easiest to set up is Dropbox, but it's fairly limited which files and you can synchronize. The best solution would be installing an FTP/SSH server on the phone, but setting up those might be difficult.

I don't suppose any of these will work over Bluetooth?

Samba Filesharing is a great app for connecting over wifi, but does require root.  I use it regularly myself.  Just turn on wifi, fire up the app, and then you can browse your SD card from your pc.

How is the app requiring root a mistake? BTW, if you read the app description it will tell it needs root under the requirements.

So I did! Dur.  Corrected.

Excellent, I deleted my original comment as it may only cause confusion now...

AndSMB is functionally more useful among free samba file sharing apps.

It is SMB client. What it has to do with the topic?

If you're just looking for a way to easily transfer files to and from your device wirelessly, then rather than an app that lets you access the device's filesystem directly you might want to consider using a file synchronization app instead.
For example, if you use Syncthing to synchronize certain directories (music, pictures, video) on your phone to your PC, then when you want to copy or change a file on your phone you can just update it in the synced directory on your PC. This method is much faster than directly accessing the phone's filesystem, since the actual copy operation happens silently in the background. No need for your phone to even be online at the time; it'll automatically synchronize next time you connect to Wi-Fi. As an added bonus, this solution also doubles as a local backup of all your pictures and other files on on phone.
I realize this isn't quite what you asked for, but I felt I should mention it anyway since I was having a similar problem and this solved it for me.

but does that mean those files and folderst will have to stay on computer in same folder and if you remove , they will be removed from phone as well, like in dropbox?


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One-click full backup & dropbox sync in Titanium Backup?
Is it possible to make a full backup of everything and then it sync into dropbox (and repeat if syncing was unsuccessful) with a one click? I'd like to just launch a backup procedure and go sleeping knowing that when I wake up, everything that could be done was done... and Titanium Backup's interface is so confusing to me.
I've got a pro version.

As of version 4.8.2 you can automatically synchronise to Dropbox (or Box.net) with each scheduled backup:

Go to Schedules in the main menu
Select a schedule or create a new one
Fiddle with the time settings to your heart's content
Select "Sync to Dropbox" in the "When finished:" combo box at the bottom.

Could also be a good idea to adjust the "Connectivity modes" to synchronise over Wi-Fi only in the settings to avoid unnecessary data charges (if applicable).

Oh, thanks! I didn't know there actually is that "When finished:" field because it is hidden on my phone. The dialog box nicely ends with "Sunday" checkbox and there is no indication I could scroll down. Now if only I could create a shortcut in my launcher's drawer to run this schedule...

I can trim to two clicks: 1 for Full backup to local storage & another for Dropbox sync.
For Full Backup to Local Storage:
1. Tap & hold on empty home screen area. Choose Widgets.
2. From Pop-up list, tap Titanium Backup (Actions). Again, tap Action.
3. On next screen, choose Backup all user apps + system data & tap Create Widget button.
4. Done! Now, all you have to do is to tap this widget from your home screen.
For Full Sync to Dropbox:
1. Make sure you've already enabled & configured Dropbox sync from Menu ~> Preferences.
2. From Preferences, tap Dropbox settings & then Labels to synchronize. Check Synchronize everything checkbox & tap OK.
3. Done! Now, all you need is to open app & tap Sync to Dropbox now ! button at bottom from Overview tab..
Main Method For Full Backup to Local Storage (To shoot out your confusion):
1. Tap Backup/Restore tab.
2. Tap Click to edit filters just below tab bar (right-side). Make sure all radio buttons are set to All & there's no label are selected (if you've labels). Tap Apply button on top-right.
3. Hit Physical Menu button & choose Batch.
4. On next screen, tap RUN button left to Backup all user apps + system data. Tap Run the batch operation button on top.
Go really for a sleep:
Setup & enable a full backup schedule profile from Schedules tab. It will be enough if you just enable the two default schedule profiles. You can change its backup frequency after tapping Edit button.
So, in the last, you just need 1 click: 0 for Full backup & 1 for Dropbox sync! :)
What about 0 clicks??
Install Dropsync & link TB's Backup directory to a folder in Dropbox (free version supports 1 directory linking which is enough for this). It'll sync backups with Dropbox automatically (make sure Auto Sync is check in settings). So, you don't need even that one click...


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Installing the English (United States) language
I recently got my Desire HD, and it came pre-installed with Deutsch, English, Spanish, French and Portuguese, each in a (Spain) or (Portugal) flavor. Is there some way of getting an English (United States) or English (United Kingdom) on it?
 Removing the other languages as well, would be nice.

I think "English" if not otherwise specified is "U.S. English"

Well' at the moment I have English (Spain)

Android's language/locale/internationalization support is pretty bad at the moment.  I'd recommend flashing a US or UK ROM on it, which will have the language built-in.

Download MoreLocale2 from the Market, then you can change the UI language with a push of a button, without reboot.


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Wifi connecting-disabled-connecting loop
My wifi was perfectly working a few days back, but now all of a sudden all I get is connecting-disconnecting-scanning loop. It never connects. Help.
I'm on Android 2.3.5 | Wildfire S | Rooted
Here's my log:
05-02 17:18:50.583: D/StatusBarPolicy(190): onSignalStrengthsChanged
05-02 17:18:50.583: D/StatusBarService(190): updateIcon slot=phone_signal index=20 viewIndex=13 old=StatusBarIcon(pkg=com.android.systemui id=0x7f0200d2 level=0 visible=true num=0 ) icon=StatusBarIcon(pkg=com.android.systemui id=0x7f0200d2 level=0 visible=true num=0 )
05-02 17:18:53.165: D/WifiStateTracker(118): Reset connections and stopping DHCP
05-02 17:18:53.165: I/wpa_supplicant(1323): Rx Data Filter Remove [5] command
05-02 17:18:53.165: I/wpa_supplicant(1323): auto ip enabled
05-02 17:18:53.175: D/NetUtils(118): ifc_get_info addr=0 !
05-02 17:18:54.176: D/WifiStateTracker(118): Disabling interface
05-02 17:18:54.186: W/wpa_supplicant(1323): l2_packet_receive - recvfrom
05-02 17:18:54.216: D/DrmScannerReceiver(398): android.net.wifi.STATE_CHANGE
05-02 17:18:54.246: D/DrmIntentService(398): TIME_THREAD
05-02 17:18:54.246: D/DrmIntentService(398): Wifi disconnected.
05-02 17:18:54.256: D/WifiSettings(352): isDisconnected=true, detailstate=DISCONNECTED, networkId=-1, wifiinfo=SSID: <none>, BSSID: <none>, MAC: 64:A7:69:93:4B:B9, Supplicant state: DISCONNECTED, RSSI: -200, Link speed: 72, Net ID: -1
05-02 17:18:54.276: D/NetSharing_NSReceiver(352): onReceive : android.net.wifi.STATE_CHANGE
05-02 17:18:54.276: I/NetSharing_NSReceiver(352): wifienabled:false
05-02 17:18:58.861: I/wpa_supplicant(1323): Authentication with 00:00:00:00:00:00 timed out.
05-02 17:18:58.861: V/WifiMonitor(118): Event [Authentication with 00:00:00:00:00:00 timed out.]
05-02 17:18:58.861: I/wpa_supplicant(1323): CTRL-EVENT-STATE-CHANGE id=-1 state=0 BSSID=00:00:00:00:00:00
05-02 17:18:58.861: V/WifiMonitor(118): Event [CTRL-EVENT-STATE-CHANGE id=-1 state=0 BSSID=00:00:00:00:00:00]
05-02 17:18:58.871: V/WifiStateTracker(118): Changing supplicant state: DISCONNECTED ==> DISCONNECTED
05-02 17:18:58.971: I/wpa_supplicant(1323): CTRL-EVENT-STATE-CHANGE id=-1 state=2 BSSID=00:00:00:00:00:00
05-02 17:18:58.971: I/wpa_supplicant(1323): wpa_driver_wext_combo_scan: Start
05-02 17:18:58.971: V/WifiMonitor(118): Event [CTRL-EVENT-STATE-CHANGE id=-1 state=2 BSSID=00:00:00:00:00:00]
05-02 17:18:58.971: V/WifiStateTracker(118): Changing supplicant state: DISCONNECTED ==> SCANNING
05-02 17:18:58.971: D/ConnectivityService(118): Dropping ConnectivityChange for WIFI: DISCONNECTED/SCANNING
05-02 17:18:59.542: I/wpa_supplicant(1323): got scan complete
05-02 17:18:59.542: I/wpa_supplicant(1323): wpa_supplicant_get_scan_results:return scan results2
05-02 17:18:59.542: I/wpa_supplicant(1323): AP:ssid[MoDroid],rssi[-30],BSSID=00:26:82:73:2d:d3
05-02 17:18:59.542: I/wpa_supplicant(1323): Received 201 bytes of scan results (1 BSSes)
05-02 17:18:59.542: I/wpa_supplicant(1323): wpa_driver_wext_get_scan_results---
05-02 17:18:59.542: I/wpa_supplicant(1323): wpa_disabled_ssid_list_clear
05-02 17:18:59.542: I/wpa_supplicant(1323): clear disable: MoDroid
05-02 17:18:59.542: W/wpa_supplicant(1323): [EAP-MSG] EAP wpa_supplicant_check_sim@436: eap_methods not available
05-02 17:18:59.542: I/wpa_supplicant(1323): Trying to associate with 00:26:82:73:2d:d3 (SSID='MoDroid' freq=2412 MHz)
05-02 17:18:59.542: I/wpa_supplicant(1323): CTRL-EVENT-STATE-CHANGE id=-1 state=3 BSSID=00:26:82:73:2d:d3
05-02 17:18:59.562: V/WifiMonitor(118): Event [wpa_disabled_ssid_list_clear]
05-02 17:18:59.562: V/WifiMonitor(118): Event [clear disable: MoDroid]
05-02 17:18:59.562: V/WifiMonitor(118): Event [Trying to associate with 00:26:82:73:2d:d3 (SSID='MoDroid' freq=2412 MHz)]
05-02 17:18:59.562: V/WifiMonitor(118): Event [CTRL-EVENT-STATE-CHANGE id=-1 state=3 BSSID=00:26:82:73:2d:d3]
05-02 17:18:59.562: I/wpa_supplicant(1323): CTRL-EVENT-STATE-CHANGE id=1 state=4 BSSID=00:26:82:73:2d:d3
05-02 17:18:59.572: V/WifiMonitor(118): Event [CTRL-EVENT-STATE-CHANGE id=1 state=4 BSSID=00:26:82:73:2d:d3]
05-02 17:18:59.572: I/wpa_supplicant(1323): Associated with 00:26:82:73:2d:d3
05-02 17:18:59.572: V/WifiMonitor(118): Event [Associated with 00:26:82:73:2d:d3]
05-02 17:18:59.572: V/WifiStateTracker(118): Changing supplicant state: SCANNING ==> ASSOCIATING
05-02 17:18:59.572: D/StatusBarPolicy(190): onSignalStrengthsChanged
05-02 17:18:59.582: D/StatusBarService(190): updateIcon slot=phone_signal index=20 viewIndex=13 old=StatusBarIcon(pkg=com.android.systemui id=0x7f0200d2 level=0 visible=true num=0 ) icon=StatusBarIcon(pkg=com.android.systemui id=0x7f0200d2 level=0 visible=true num=0 )
05-02 17:18:59.592: I/keystore(76): uid: 1000 action: t -> 3 state: 3 -> 3 retry: 4
05-02 17:18:59.592: V/WifiStateTracker(118): KeyStore.LOCKED
05-02 17:18:59.592: I/wpa_supplicant(1323): DISABLE_80211X
05-02 17:18:59.592: I/wpa_supplicant(1323): CTRL_IFACE: wpa_supplicant_ctrl_iface_disable_80211X
05-02 17:18:59.612: V/WifiStateTracker(118): Changing supplicant state: ASSOCIATING ==> ASSOCIATED
05-02 17:18:59.612: D/ConnectivityService(118): [embedded] ConnectivityChange for WIFI: CONNECTING/CONNECTING, default=-1
05-02 17:19:02.585: D/StatusBarPolicy(190): onSignalStrengthsChanged
05-02 17:19:02.585: D/StatusBarService(190): updateIcon slot=phone_signal index=20 viewIndex=13 old=StatusBarIcon(pkg=com.android.systemui id=0x7f0200d2 level=0 visible=true num=0 ) icon=StatusBarIcon(pkg=com.android.systemui id=0x7f0200d2 level=0 visible=true num=0 )
05-02 17:19:05.587: D/StatusBarPolicy(190): onSignalStrengthsChanged
05-02 17:19:05.587: D/StatusBarService(190): updateIcon slot=phone_signal index=20 viewIndex=13 old=StatusBarIcon(pkg=com.android.systemui id=0x7f0200d2 level=0 visible=true num=0 ) icon=StatusBarIcon(pkg=com.android.systemui id=0x7f0200d2 level=0 visible=true num=0 )
05-02 17:19:05.708: I/wpa_supplicant(1323): wpa_driver_wext_combo_scan: Start
05-02 17:19:06.078: I/wpa_supplicant(1323): CTRL-EVENT-DISCONNECTED - Disconnect event - remove keys
05-02 17:19:06.078: V/WifiMonitor(118): Event [CTRL-EVENT-DISCONNECTED - Disconnect event - remove keys]
05-02 17:19:06.078: V/WifiStateTracker(118): New network state is DISCONNECTED
05-02 17:19:06.088: I/wpa_supplicant(1323): CTRL-EVENT-STATE-CHANGE id=1 state=0 BSSID=00:00:00:00:00:00
05-02 17:19:06.088: V/WifiMonitor(118): Event [CTRL-EVENT-STATE-CHANGE id=1 state=0 BSSID=00:00:00:00:00:00]
05-02 17:19:06.088: V/WifiStateTracker(118): Changing supplicant state: ASSOCIATED ==> DISCONNECTED
05-02 17:19:06.178: I/wpa_supplicant(1323): CTRL-EVENT-STATE-CHANGE id=1 state=2 BSSID=00:00:00:00:00:00
05-02 17:19:06.178: V/WifiMonitor(118): Event [CTRL-EVENT-STATE-CHANGE id=1 state=2 BSSID=00:00:00:00:00:00]
05-02 17:19:06.178: V/WifiStateTracker(118): Changing supplicant state: DISCONNECTED ==> SCANNING
05-02 17:19:06.178: I/wpa_supplicant(1323): wpa_driver_wext_combo_scan: Start
05-02 17:19:06.188: W/wpa_supplicant(1323): ioctl[SIOCSIWPRIV] (cscan): -1
05-02 17:19:06.188: W/wpa_supplicant(1323): Failed to initiate AP scan.
05-02 17:19:07.229: I/wpa_supplicant(1323): got scan complete
05-02 17:19:07.229: I/wpa_supplicant(1323): wpa_supplicant_get_scan_results:return scan results2
05-02 17:19:07.229: W/wpa_supplicant(1323): ioctl[SIOCGIWSCAN]: 22
05-02 17:19:07.229: I/wpa_supplicant(1323): wpa_driver_wext_get_scan_results:buffer is NULL
05-02 17:19:07.229: I/wpa_supplicant(1323): wpa_drv_get_scan_results2:Failed to get scan results
05-02 17:19:07.229: I/wpa_supplicant(1323): Failed to get scan results - try scanning again
05-02 17:19:08.340: I/wpa_supplicant(1323): wpa_driver_wext_combo_scan: Start

http://pastebin.com/r23NQ2VC

I'm going to close this as "localized" since the issue stems from your specific Wi-Fi software rather than an Android issue, though feel free to accept your own answer.

This was a problem with the routing software Connectify.

can you mark this as solved?

I had this problem on my t101 tablet. Sometimes, " forgetting" the network entry would work, but my final fix was this: I set my phone up as a hotspot and connected my tablet to that. After doing that twice my tf101 has connected to my router without fault. It's not a satisfying answer. Things shouldn't be so clunky, but here we are.


text:
Acer A500 internal storage is not auto-mounted by Ubuntu
I just got my Acer A500 and have problems accessing the it's storage from my ubuntu machines.
If I try it with Win7 in VirtualBox it is automatically mounted without requiring any actions on the tablet itself.
Ubuntu accepts the USB device (it can be passed to vbox) but nothing further. The only dmesg entry is:
[119174.117100] usb 1-1.2: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 22

I'm able to mount and use other usb storage devices.

Can you boot ubuntu off a livecd directly onto the hardware and see if it works then?

I know there's a guide on XDA for the Xoom. Could be the same kind of procedure for the A500 since they're both running Honeycomb. You can take a look at it here and see if it helps.

On Ubuntu, your device needs to be manually identified to the udev system:
As root:
Create or edit /etc/udev/rules.d/51-android.rules and add this line:
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", SYSFS{idVendor}=="0502″, MODE="0666"

Then:
# chmod a+rx /etc/udev/rules.d/51-android.rules
# restart udev
udev start/running, process 3793

This works for my Sidekick on my Ubuntu 10.04 system.

Im not able to mount but ADB push/pull works... see this thread http://developer.android.com/guide/developing/tools/adb.html


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App Updates - Are they dependent on Google Market?
I noticed on another android phone there were "updates" such as new Youtube, Gmail, etc. I never received a notification for these on my device. Are these delivered via Google Market, or is there another app I can use to update these other than Google Market?

It has Android 2.2.2

I don't have 'play store' app.

No, is there a custom rom with an updater?

App updates notification can come from the app themselves, but most commonly they come from the Play Store. Play Store will notify you for any updates to system apps (i.e. apps that originally comes with the phone) and apps that are installed through the Play Store; it won't notify you about updates to side-loaded apps our apps installed by third party market.
Third party market may also have their own update notification mechanism; which is completely unrelated to the Play Store update mechanism. They may or may not provide update to system apps, although most don't. Amazon App Market for example also provide updates notification. Note that update notification on third party market depends on the app developer updating the app on the third party market, some developers might update their app on Play but not on third party market or vice versa for various reasons.

@RichardBorcsik: I thought they were a bug and had been fixed in the latest Play Market?

@RichardBorcsik: it should've already been fixed in Play 3.5, according to http://www.phonearena.com/news/Google-Play-no-longer-shows-sideloaded-apps_id29035

I noticed on another android phone there were "updates" such as new Youtube, Gmail, etc. I never received a notification for these on my device.

Go to Play Store App in your device and hit the Menu button and Go to My Apps you can see the installed apps list here. select any app and you can see the Check box Allow Automatic updating below the application screen shots. Check this and you will be notify every time when the updates are available and it will automatically update if you are connected with any Network (EDGE/Wi-Fi/3G).
Are these delivered via Google Market.

Ofcourse, they are delivered via Google Market.
or is there another app I can use to update these other than Google Market?

No, There are no other apps that you can use to update these apps. if there will be any app that offers updates they will ultimately redirected to the Google Market.

As you can see the running updates in your Notification Bar.


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Issues with automatic update on a rooted Epic 4g touch
So my phone originally had (before the root) Android 2.3.6. After the root process, it ended with 2.3.4 and it keeps telling me to update. A few things aren't working for me anymore, and I'm not sure if that's because of the root process or because of a bad 2.3.4 version.
Anyway, every couple of days my phone will notify me that there is an update available (likely the 2.3.6 I had before) and it asks if I'd like to restart and install. Upon clicking restart, it goes black, starts an update screen (with a progress bar) and goes about 1/4 the way before it stops updating and shows me a warning sign.
My question(s): Am I able to apply an update via a rooted phone? If so, what might be going wrong? If not, is there a way to either turn off that update (or get it via a different method or something)?

Sprint is really nice about forcing these updates. I ended up having to unroot my friends phone because he wanted the Evo update so bad. My personal solution you'll find below ;)

My answer(s): (these are limited to my experiences)
No, you most likely will not be able to apply a standard update to a rooted phone.
As far as turning off the update, this is most likely specific to the phone, and if it's being pushed by your carrier, my guess is you can't just turn it off. I would choose (now that you're rooted) to just flash a new ROM. If you like your stock stuff, you can probably find a ROM that is the same thing you're using now, with the 2.3.6 update.
This ROM may be what you're looking for in the case I described. It doesn't require you to do a wipe either, basically the update for your phone!

I'm considering flashing to an ICS rom, but I don't know if any of them are stable enough for my liking yet, so I decided to just update to 2.3.6 if I could and wait on it a bit.


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Is it possible to shutdown or restart a Logitech Revue without pulling the power cord?
My Revue (Android 3.1) was acting balky, so I wanted to restart it.  I spent several minutes looking through menus, but didn't find an option to shut down or restart the OS.   I ended up pulling the power cord, but it seemed a bit harsh.

Google's support page provides this option:

To Reboot your Google TV:
To reboot your Sony TV or Bluray player or your Logitech Revue, press
  Control + Alt + Backspace on your controller.

If you had adb connected you could also try adb reboot, which works on other devices.


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Cancel Exchange device administrator activation?
I was trying to add my Exchange account to my phone to confirm for a coworker that logging into the server was possible. I don't want to relinquish the device administrator controls as it's my personal phone, which is why I hadn't added it before and don't want to actually have it synced.
I was able to access the account to confirm, and was prompted to activate the device administrator, giving permissions to erase my data, set password rules, etc. I can hit cancel at this prompt, but am repeatedly re-prompted to activate whenever I try to access the Email app. I can't seem to figure out how to decline the activation or otherwise remove the Exchange account. Of course I could just activate, change my settings, then delete the account and change all of them back, but that would be a bit of a hassle and seems like bad design. Is there any way for me to remove the Exchange account/decline the device administrator prompt without activation?

Have you tried "Force Stopping" the app and clearing the data?

Messed around with it a bit more and found a solution. I just had to go to Settings -> Accounts & sync to delete the Exchange account.