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Just got a shiny new Fascinate, and about to start customizing it. I would like to remove most of the large collection of cr*pware that came pre-installed, bing included. Is it possible to install superuser and uninstall this stuff without risking bricking the device?
I'm a relative Android newb, and I'd rather not dabble in custom roms as this is an employer provided phone and I'm not comfortable blasting a new firmware on it yet.
Also, if I succeed in removing the aforementioned software, can / will it be restored by resetting the device to defaults, if that's even possible? Or will I need to root the thing in order to install backup software?
Lastly, if I want to use a keyboard other than swype or the default android, do I need to move the .apk to the /system/apps folder like I did on my Nook?
Yes, you can simply root your device and not install a custom ROM. Yes, you will have to root in order to de-bloat, so be aware, although it is very simple.
Rooting walkthrough: (very painless)
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=948722
Once rooted, download Titanium Backup from the Android market and de-bloat to your heart's content.
You might want to consider downloading ROM Manager (from market) and making a full backup of your rooted phone (called a Nandroid backup)
Keyboard: you can search the market for alternate keyboards (easiest method) or use adb push to /system/app if there is one you really want to use.
Cool, thanks for the response!
I'd already rooted, which would have been completely painless if I were running winblows. Nevertheless, after getting adb functional on Ubuntu it was relatively simple.
I've removed all the 'stuff' I don't want, any idea how to reassign the search button so it isn't pointing to bing also?
With Titanium and ROM Manager, would I need CWR or some other alternative boot app installed to restore this?
Also, I see lots of references to odin which is apparently needed for flashing over USB in the event I decide to take the plunge and dabble in custom roms. Anyone know if there's an equivalent for linux / osx? It astounds me that an android dev community such as this seems to be so windows centric...
for linux and mac use Heimdall, an odin clone.
Sent from my SCH-I500 using XDA App
If you're still running EB01, then Bing search is hard coded. However, many custom ROMS remove this. I'm currently using SuperClean 2.9 and have both google search and google voice search (long press search button) set as my default.
A definitive list of Fascinate ROMS can be found here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1013312
To restore, I would definitely use CWR, as it is the recovery method used by ROM Manager. This is done either within ROM Manager (Backup/Restore) or by booting directly into CWM. Just make sure ,with a Fascinate, you only use CWR version 2.5.x.x, since version 3.0 doesn't currently play nice with the older amend type scripting.
It downloaded EA28 right after activation - I believe it said this is a corporate contract build, which is part of why I'm reluctant to burn a custom rom.
Outside of the bing search and the speakerphone being too loud, I really have no qualms with the phone at this early stage.
Thanks for the info about CWR and such - I've been lurking here for months and find the more I read the more confused I get.
Best not to go tinkering with corporate property- no sense in losing your job over a phone.
The speakerphone volume should be adjustable via the volume rocker on the side while activated.
Yes, there is a lot of knowledge available here, lol. Just remember, everybody here started somewhere.
Funny nick btw...
artvandelay440 said:
Best not to go tinkering with corporate property- no sense in losing your job over a phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not worried about that - they wouldn't fire me over a phone, I'm the guy that keeps their accounting system up at five nines. I just don't want to have to schmooze the office manager to get me a replacement if I brick it after less than a week. I'll let the new wear off a little first.
artvandelay440 said:
The speakerphone volume should be adjustable via the volume rocker on the side while activated.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, but at it's lowest setting it's still loud enough to be heard 30 ft away. Not a huge issue.
Ok, last question and I'll start spending a little more time searching, I promise. What's the deal with wifi on these things? Can / will they go through the wifi to get to the cloud? It doesn't appear that mine is doing this when I'm at home where 3g is very hit-and-miss. Are there any settings to tweak? Or is wifi just there for the DLNA server and tethering? I guess i was a bit spoiled by my blackberry in that this functionality (wifi handover) worked very well on the curve.
I haven't noticed any issues with wifi and cloud applications (dropbox, evernote, etc)
If you just mean internet connectivity in general sucks on wifi, perhaps it is more a router/ISP issue and less of the phone. Might do you some good to download a wifi analyzer to your phone (market) and make sure your dB strength is adequate, as well as make sure your router is broadcasting on the least congested channel. Have you tried connecting on a different wifi network? (work, restaurant)
Already have my AP set to the channel with the best noise floor. So I don't think it's an RF issue - all my other wifi devices (two laptops, two Nook tablets, and formerly my blackberry 8320) all work as well as could be expected with the same AP configuration.
I guess what I'm wanting to know is if there's a way to setup the IP/PPP stack on the phone to default to wifi for data. I guess I need to delve into the innards of their network config to find this out. Just thought there might be a GUI config menu somewhere that I was missing.
I'm not worried about that - they wouldn't fire me over a phone, I'm the guy that keeps their accounting system up at five nines. I just don't want to have to schmooze the office manager to get me a replacement if I brick it after less than a week. I'll let the new wear off a little first.
Brick a Fascinate? Don't think its Possible, I have done just about every stupid thing you can think of to mine, including flashing Darky's 9.3 rom for the I9000 on it by accident. As long as I can get it into DL mode, odin or heimdall can fix my stupidity.
Hello, for the past few weeks i've been using cm 7.1 on my i9100 and I'd be glad to say that the rom is perfect, if some issues didn't come up. Firstly, since the first day of use, i've realized that the sound volume (both from speaker and headset) is fairly low compared to samsung's rom (to be frank going above 50-60% in volume options doesn't make a difference). Is there any solution to this? CM 9 apart from the "known issues" got that bug too?
The second problem came up a few days ago and it's related to the android market app. Everytime you scroll through an app's details, the phone freezes and the only way to restore it, is to turn it off and on again. Currently, i'm using app brain which doesn't seem to have that problem, but i really love google's app. So, any solution to that?
Try the app in my sig to give the headset/headphone volume a boost, works really well & only distorts the volume at very high levels (>75% which you shouldn't need). There are apps on the Market which can boost the speaker volume, not sure how well these work as I haven't tried any.
So far as the Market is concerned, I use a CM based rom and have had that problem as well. The only fix I've come across/read about is to restore a much earlier version of the market (hopefully someone else reads this thread and has a fix that can help both of us ). I haven't done this myself as I've trained myself to do all my scrolling thru app details on my PC first & simply do the install/update on my phone without scrolling thru the details , but I'm sure a search on here should dig up something/the apk you need.
Ask in the right place may get an answer quicker .
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1176411
jje
I've been happily running the GEEWIZ 2.6 ROM alternately with GEEWIZ kernel and KGB kernel. No problems at all except for the Stereo Bluetooth connection to my car.
The phone works great on newer versions of my car 2009 Acura TSX and other phones work fine on my car.
Well I (via Google) finally narrowed the problem down. There is a bug in the native android 2.2 and 2.3 code that Samsung pushes right through. HTC for example fixed the code in their phones.
Google this: "Issue 9888oor A2DP sound quality". I added the word Acura as well.
Cyanogenmod 7.2 RC1 does not have this bug and the phone sounds fine on my car. Would it be possible to extract or port the A2DP code from Cyanogenmod 7 and place it into GEEWIZ or other more stock ROM's?
The reason I want to stay more stock is that I can't get SMS delivery confirmation to work in Cyanogenmod 7 or 9 or Gummy 1.0 and SMS confirmation works well in GEEWIZ 2.6.
I have tried GO and HandCent SMS clients in addition to stock and have checked all combination's of receive and sent notifications and delivery requests and reports. None work. Texts get through fine just no confirmation. Verizon to Verizon should work.
I don't have enough posts to post in the Dev/GEEWIZ thread. Can someone help or cross post please? I've read until I'm blue in the face on both of these issues. ;-)
BTW, I have 2 fascinates and both act exactly the same.
Thanks!
Zong00 said:
I've been happily running the GEEWIZ 2.6 ROM alternately with GEEWIZ kernel and KGB kernel. No problems at all except for the Stereo Bluetooth connection to my car.
The phone works great on newer versions of my car 2009 Acura TSX and other phones work fine on my car.
Well I (via Google) finally narrowed the problem down. There is a bug in the native android 2.2 and 2.3 code that Samsung pushes right through. HTC for example fixed the code in their phones.
Google this: "Issue 9888oor A2DP sound quality". I added the word Acura as well.
Cyanogenmod 7.2 RC1 does not have this bug and the phone sounds fine on my car. Would it be possible to extract or port the A2DP code from Cyanogenmod 7 and place it into GEEWIZ or other more stock ROM's?
The reason I want to stay more stock is that I can't get SMS delivery confirmation to work in Cyanogenmod 7 or 9 or Gummy 1.0 and SMS confirmation works well in GEEWIZ 2.6.
I have tried GO and HandCent SMS clients in addition to stock and have checked all combination's of receive and sent notifications and delivery requests and reports. None work. Texts get through fine just no confirmation. Verizon to Verizon should work.
I don't have enough posts to post in the Dev/GEEWIZ thread. Can someone help or cross post please? I've read until I'm blue in the face on both of these issues. ;-)
BTW, I have 2 fascinates and both act exactly the same.
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No problem, I'll have a look at it for you and see if I can fix that in GeeWiz for the final release. Thanks for PMing me, by the way, I was about to post GW 2.8, but I would like to be able to include this too!
thanks
I would be happy to test any change. I'm getting used to flashing every night now. ;-)
Well, I ported over what I *thought* was everything they did in CM 7.2 and all that I managed to do was destroy the ability to pair with a device so far
I dug out my old BT audio receiver and I can certainly hear that it sounds like garbage by default. Well, it wasn't THAT bad but I do see, er hear, what you are talking about.
My concern is that my receiver is old and crappy (it is), and I may never be able to actually hear any difference. That said, I will keep trying for a while, if I can at least pair with the receiver after changing something I will pass it along to you and see if it does something useful for ya!
From what I understand the Fascinate with stock software works on older Bluetooth devices OK. I don't know that for sure because I don't have an older bluetooth device. On my car, the stock Fascinate does not have any fidelity, it produces sound via bluetooth like an AM radio with clicking sounds. When updated to Cyanogenmod 7.2, the sound is very FM like with no clicking sounds.
I appreciate the effort!
thanks,
OK, I finally got back to this. I was replacing too many modules, I toned it down a bit to just replace the bluez audio module and the a2dp module. I can absolutely hear a difference now!
It's still Bluetooth, aka not perfect, but I can crank the volume on the Fascinate up much louder before it "splats" (that's a very technical audio term) and overall it just sounds much much better.
I've attached a test version of an update-zip you can try. Should work with Clockwork Mod and/or my GeeWiz Recovery, but I've only tested with the latter of course . I will be making a more official version for GeeWiz 2.8 (I may go ahead and release a 2.8.1 with this, it's a pretty big fix -- who cares if I said there would be no more updates, right? LOL)
THANK YOU for pointing this out to me!! Let me know what you think!
Not yet
No joy -
First I tried loading the patch over fullwipe GEEWIZ 2.8 and KGB 12/31.
Next I tried loading the GEEWIZ kernel over the KGB kernel.
And finally I tried loading the full 2.8.1 system file.
The sound is still not nearly as clear as Cyanogen 7.2 RC1.
I'm sure if the new build is somewhere in the middle or not. Seems like the full fidelity is present now but the clicking sound is still present.
Cyanogen BT is as clear as a direct audio connection. At least to my old ears.
I'll revert back to 2.8 and try the audio test again.
Do you think a full wipe would help - can't imagine why.
Zong00 said:
No joy -
First I tried loading the patch over fullwipe GEEWIZ 2.8 and KGB 12/31.
Next I tried loading the GEEWIZ kernel over the KGB kernel.
And finally I tried loading the full 2.8.1 system file.
The sound is still not nearly as clear as Cyanogen 7.2 RC1.
I'm sure if the new build is somewhere in the middle or not. Seems like the full fidelity is present now but the clicking sound is still present.
Cyanogen BT is as clear as a direct audio connection. At least to my old ears.
I'll revert back to 2.8 and try the audio test again.
Do you think a full wipe would help - can't imagine why.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Full wipe probably wouldn't do anything for ya, no. When you say clicking, is it fairly often, or more like once per song? I get what sounds more like a skip (to me) about once per song, I didn't think it was the same complaint, but perhaps it is? If so, at least I can duplicate it, so that's good.
I'm not sure if much more can be done, the only remaining difference is the audio.conf (trivial changes) and the libbluetooth C library itself, and replacing the latter causes the Fascinate to not be able to pair. I think source would be required to properly replace that module (CyanogenMod has that particular luxury). It could be in the Java code, though. If that's the case it can still be fixed.
I'll poke around some more and see if I can do anything else for ya. I was jamming all night over bluetooth last night, honestly I didn't even know the device could do that a few days ago - LOL.
djp952 said:
Full wipe probably wouldn't do anything for ya, no. When you say clicking, is it fairly often, or more like once per song? I get what sounds more like a skip (to me) about once per song, I didn't think it was the same complaint, but perhaps it is? If so, at least I can duplicate it, so that's good.
I'm not sure if much more can be done, the only remaining difference is the audio.conf (trivial changes) and the libbluetooth C library itself, and replacing the latter causes the Fascinate to not be able to pair. I think source would be required to properly replace that module (CyanogenMod has that particular luxury). It could be in the Java code, though. If that's the case it can still be fixed.
I'll poke around some more and see if I can do anything else for ya. I was jamming all night over Bluetooth last night, honestly I didn't even know the device could do that a few days ago - LOL.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The clicking sound in my car occurs several times a second and its really obvious. Acura blamed the phone (Samsung) saying just that the phone wasn't compatible but I wasn't convinced until I found the Android bug ID.
I really appreciate the effort and it sounds like you fixed a problem just not my problem. ;-)
I'm considering a Galaxy III this summer but Samsung has left a bad taste in my mouth.
Let me know if you come up with anything else to try.
thanks!
Well, I spent some more time on this, and found that Samsung actually does include the BT code with their public distribution. So ... I spent some time merging that with the Cyanogenmod code that's currently available on github, and gave it a try. Short version: fail. Sounds like crap again and still skips intermittently for me. I can't replicate your more frequent skip, I'm afraid, but this was certainly a step backwards regardless.
Next I tried replacing all the modules my custom build generated with the ones from CyanogenMod 7.2 RC1. Even bigger fail, no bluetooth at all.
Using custom build with the BLUEZ modules from CyanogenMod restored the sound quality but it still skipped. Basically back where I started, so fail. I don't see the code edits they made that improve the fidelity so much, maybe they haven't committed them yet?
Last try was to set Master=true in the system/etc/bluetooth/audio.conf file on top of everything else. Still skips, but maybe a little less often? Still chalking it up as a fail.
So I think I'm not going to be able to fix this for you. There's a chance that what they did in CM 7.2 RC1 is just not posted yet and I can still make a custom set of binaries that will work, but I'm not very optimistic about it. I think what I did in GW 2.8.1 is pretty much as good as I can get it. Sorry
I did the best I could. For what it's worth, BT audio on my Fascinate is light years better than it is on my Galaxy Nexus at the moment. Not much consolation for you, but it's something I guess. The fact that I was able to generate a set of working BT binaries from source is also a good thing, even if they didn't solve anything since that means if I even stumble upon the fix it's something I can build myself!
You're welcome to try my final attempt, I've attached the .zip to this post. This is a custom BT module build with the BLUEZ modules with the ones from CM 7.2 RC1 and the master=true setting in audio.conf. I really don't think it will solve anything for you, but the only way to be sure is to try, right?
HI
I have installed 3 versions of the umts roms from the crackteam project. The aosp for something like that date Oct 20 did not even load,
Also the cyanogen cm10 worked pretty good but besides battery drain the bluetooth headsets do not ask for the device code.
For bluetooth speakers it works fine but on headsets no sound can be heard.
Which JB ROM is the best for xt910? :beer:
I really need the handsfree it is essential for driving, but I like JB and hate factory ROMs with apps I did not even choose nor use (twitter, facebook, evernote) and cannot uninstall.
doutdes said:
HI
I have installed 3 versions of the umts roms from the crackteam project. The aosp for something like that date Oct 20 did not even load,
Also the cyanogen cm10 worked pretty good but besides battery drain the bluetooth headsets do not ask for the device code.
For bluetooth speakers it works fine but on headsets no sound can be heard.
Which JB ROM is the best for xt910? :beer:
I really need the handsfree it is essential for driving, but I like JB and hate factory ROMs with apps I did not even choose nor use (twitter, facebook, evernote) and cannot uninstall.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, Bluetooth sound is not working on JB. I need it for driving too so I am running ICS. None of the JB roms have handsfree bluetooth calling working, so if you need it for driving, do not use Jellybean at the moment.
tried goo.im bluetooth still not wirking with headset
scottdanpor said:
Yes, Bluetooth sound is not working on JB. I need it for driving too so I am running ICS. None of the JB roms have handsfree bluetooth calling working, so if you need it for driving, do not use Jellybean at the moment.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for clarifying the source of the problem, well I will keep trying nightly roms hope one of these days one of them will work.
Today I tried:
goo.im umts_spyder/aokp/STOCK-JB-aokp_umts_spyder_unofficial_Oct-22-12.zip
But still nothing, plus did not like too much the aopk nova launcher way too many options for the UI, maybe i am used to one command at a time
That is a nice ROM. Subscribe to the thread in the development section, some say Bluetooth will be fixed.
I don't use nova launcher either, but it's a good launcher. I bought Apex pro so i just load that with any ROM I'm using and restore my settings. Easiest to figure out what launcher you like and just save your settings to your SD card. Makes restoring a snap.
Sent from my XT910 using xda app-developers app
Tried CNA
scottdanpor said:
That is a nice ROM. Subscribe to the thread in the development section, some say Bluetooth will be fixed.
I don't use nova launcher either, but it's a good launcher. I bought Apex pro so i just load that with any ROM I'm using and restore my settings. Easiest to figure out what launcher you like and just save your settings to your SD card. Makes restoring a snap.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the suggestion, and yes formerly when I had a Motorola Bravo I used Golauncher, now seems that Apex Pro is the option to go for (I liked a theme about maya's, since this is their last year), I also went to google contacts and tried to delete a lot of what is repeating to avoid having to do the clean up each time I flash the device.
BTW I just tried the CNA, from crack team crackteam.crackflasher umts_spyder/cna/STOCK-CNA-JB-Oct-23-2012-07.49.40-CrackTeam-Umts_Spyder.zip
The bluetooth connection works a bit better, but with aokp and cm10 they auto discovered the APN from my carrier, with this I had to manually setup the APN access point, not a big deal the internet worked but just a curious point. As for the bluetooth connection it was a bit better since I was able to hangup and answer the call from the headset, but still no sound neither in nor out.
Which ROM to try, from crackteam they updated all today Aokp, aosp, cm10, cm9, cna, wow this guys develop faster than what it takes to test the roms, in case of confusion this last paragraph is a complement to the crackteam
doutdes said:
Thanks for the suggestion, and yes formerly when I had a Motorola Bravo I used Golauncher, now seems that Apex Pro is the option to go for (I liked a theme about maya's, since this is their last year), I also went to google contacts and tried to delete a lot of what is repeating to avoid having to do the clean up each time I flash the device.
BTW I just tried the CNA, from crack team crackteam.crackflasher umts_spyder/cna/STOCK-CNA-JB-Oct-23-2012-07.49.40-CrackTeam-Umts_Spyder.zip
The bluetooth connection works a bit better, but with aokp and cm10 they auto discovered the APN from my carrier, with this I had to manually setup the APN access point, not a big deal the internet worked but just a curious point. As for the bluetooth connection it was a bit better since I was able to hangup and answer the call from the headset, but still no sound neither in nor out.
Which ROM to try, from crackteam they updated all today Aokp, aosp, cm10, cm9, cna, wow this guys develop faster than what it takes to test the roms, in case of confusion this last paragraph is a complement to the crackteam
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had to enter my APN manually as well.
When one is fixed for bluetooth they will all be fixed. I'm just gonna keep an eye on the comments in the thread and the first page and try it out when it's fixed. Of course it works for CM9.
It's all trial and error for now, testing and bug fixing is a lengthy process.
Just tried the cm10 Oct-23 from crackteam, after trying the aosp (which did not load), the aokp, the cna(did not load the default user background picture, additionaly had the manually setup the APN); i am back with the cm10 which as for pure taste or user experience is the one I like the most.
I like how CM10 displays the keyboard with alternate keys, still with today's version bluetooth headset is not working for music is ok but for calls nope.
I'll try the cm9 as you suggested me just to prove bluetooth headset works with custom ICS rom.
Sent from my XT910 using xda premium
HDMI port not working
Just got the hdmi cable but it is not working with CM9, there is no setting to scan for hdmi
I screwed up my xt910
doutdes said:
Just got the hdmi cable but it is not working with CM9, there is no setting to scan for hdmi
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Since the HDMI was not working and I bought the stupid cable, I decided to go back to the stock rom, with moto blur and all that crap so I could get the hdmi working as supposed.
When doing the restore using SafeStrap I choose to recover the webtop and according to what I have found that could be what brick my beautiful phone.
Now I am using RSDLite and trying to restore at least to Factory settings, got and error about cdt.bin_signed when trying to install the Reatil image for XT910 for Brazil.
I found a site with several different images http://sbf.droid-developers.org/umts_spyder/list.php
although for the momento I will try the one from androidroot.org
Finally, with the factory cable and trying a lot of roms because of the cdt.bin_signed error; well the one for this razr was retail ICS 6.7.2 emea.
Not sure why but when rebooted it always gets to the recovery menu and I am forced to choose normal powerup
Besides that I am back to android world with an unbricked phone
Sent from my XT910 using xda premium
I tried getting Viper audio working today and pretty much hosed my Google Music. I have been running ressurection ROM for a while now which uses AudioFX and I grew tired of the lack of audio options. Also every time I reboot or even just randomly during the day my network drops and I have to choose another APN (although it never actually changes it just prompts the LTE to reconnect) which is super annoying.
So I read up on it flashed some IPS changed some settings and now Google won't play music which is my primary music player.
Any chance you guys can tell me which lolli based ROMs (without the LG skin) either are cooked with or have worked with Viper & Google music?
I've used the lolliviper.zip file located below many many times on AOSP based ROM's (including CM12.1) and never had an issue with it, aside from sometimes needing to download the selinux mode app to change selinux to permissive (although the OP now says if superSU is used then you don't need a full permissive kernel). Either way, it should work on all LP based ROM's including RR.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/google-nexus-5/themes-apps/discussion-viper4android-t2543796
Thanks. I did try with superSU first, then Busybox/selinux method, guessing there's just a menagerie of issues. I'm going to try Orion (did see it when I was searching around specifically for Viper before). Ty for replying