How to get answers efficiently and be helpful at the same time
I have been eagerly following this project for a while now, and gleefully confusing retailers when they see android pop up on my WM phone. There are several people who put in an exceptional amount of effort into this project, and unfortunately there seem to have been an influx of users lately who seem to be fairly effective at frustrating them. Often, instead of seeking answers already clearly identified within this forum and learning from the discussions, they step into an otherwise productive thread and ask to be brought up to speed, or to have their problems solved for them. Usually these individuals are well-intentioned, but are lacking the knowledge both of where to start learning, as well as how to be helpful. I hope this post is helpful in recruiting the many well-meaning new users into becoming active and helpful contributors in their own way, while answering their own questions and solving their own problems at the same time.
I think it's reasonable to assume everyone should do Step 1, and it would be nice if most people would also do Step 2. Step 3 is for individuals with some programming skills and a willing to learn the technological challenges at hand.
Step 1: The Basics, and asking questions well
Many, if not most of us here on this forum are driven here by curiosity, and kept by the challenges faced in this project. When we first start, there often is a very low level of relevant knowledge and understanding.
The very best place to start is the FAQ. It will help orient you to XDAndroid, and will answer many of your questions - so it's a great place to return to and do some reading.
http://xdandroid.com/wiki/Faq
Next, fortunately, we now have an excellent post by ryannathans on an introduction to Android – SD Card. If you haven’t yet read it, please do.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=980079
You may also be interested in browsing and referring to the XDAndroid wiki:
http://xdandroid.com/wiki/Main_Page
Finally, a useful thread to read the first few posts, search with your questions, and follow the most recent few pages is the main FRX06 Page. (This will probably change to a new thread when FRX07 is released)
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=951962
Once you’ve understood the key elements to getting your Rhodium (aka Touch Pro 2, Tilt 2,e tc) running Android, and know which model phone you have, you should probably install the suggested current base system (FRX06 at the time of this writing). Use it, learn about what works and what doesn’t, and do as much reading about your questions as you can. Almost everything has already been discussed on either XDA Developers or PPC Geeks. On XDA Forums, go to the main rhodium android page (http://forum.xda-developers.com/forumdisplay.php?f=589), and click the 'search this forum' button in the top right.
If you want to look a bit broader, or use a more familiar search engine, use Google, and if you need to, constrain the searches to the given sites (substituting “ThisIsMyQuestion” with your question).
GOOGLE site:http://forum.xda-developers.com/ ThisIsMyQuestion
GOOGLE site:http://forum.ppcgeeks.com/ ThisIsMyQuestion
Look first, and take the time to read. Even if you don’t find the specific answer (unlikely), you will learn a lot. I found it incredibly helpful to make an account with XDA developers so that I could identify and subscribe to the various important threads and be able to see when there have been new posts on issues I was interested in.
Now, if you still have a question, then find the appropriate thread and ask it. To pose a useful question, you need to be clear, concise, and specific. (Being polite always helps, as well as being patient)
Try to ask your question as simply as possible (ie, how do I enable/do ThisCoolThing on my Rhod 400? I am running FRX06, with _____ modifications on (SD Card / NAND / etc). I’m on Telus/Verizon/etc (CDMA / GSM). It is often a good idea to state what windows is running on your phone (ie, EnergyRom WM6.5, or stock 6.1, etc...), as some of its drivers/settings are occasionally relevant. If there seem to be some situational factor that seems important to you, briefly mention it (ie, everything worked until I did xxxx) If you have gone ahead and done something silly like overclocking your phone, state it, as it may well be a complicating factor. (hint: Don’t. ... At least not in Windows Mobile).
Secondly, try to make sure you get to trying everything suggested to you. Unfortunately, good advice is often overlooked simply because the first item didn’t fix the problem, or the solution seemed too time consuming. You may be asked to delete your data file – don’t worry, you can back it up, and if it doesn’t work, simply replace the new file with your old one. Installing a backup application such as Titanium Explorer (from marketplace) helps backup your apps and their data, speeding their re-installation (and saving you from having to re-download them).
Remember that by participating in this project, by installing new, testing versions, you are not receiving a polished or supported product. You are contributing to a community, and your few hours it takes will pale in contrast to the hours and contributions others have put in. If you do put in this time, as well as do some background reading on the issues and post your findings/solutions, you very likely will help advance the general understanding of the problems at hand.
Step 2: Provide Log Files
This may help you in getting an answer, but to be even more helpful, if your question or problem is new, or is something that hasn’t been solved yet, then having logs will help those answering your question to not fumble blindly. It may even help provide a better build for the next release.
How to get the log files:
Install ADB and DroidExplorer:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1099481
From your command prompt, after the phone is connected, grab your logs by typing the following:
adb shell dmesg > dmesg.txt
adb logcat -b radio -v time > radiolog.txt
adb logcat -v time > logcat.txt
You can learn more about logcat, if you're interested, at:
http://developer.android.com/guide/developing/tools/logcat.html
It is then a good idea to edit these logs to remove personal information (ie, your phone number from radiolog.txt (search for it in notepad/wordpad - it's 10 digits, no dashes, in my logs; your email address may appear in the logcat.txt, although I haven't found mine there). To simplify matters, I just do a search & replace for my phone number and email address, replacing them with XXXXXXXXXX.
If you're interested in catching an error in real time, you can omit the storing to file option, and the information will be displayed on the screen, continuing to report until you terminate the process with ^C (control + C)
If your computer isn’t able to find adb.exe, then you may have to either set the environment path to where you installed the android sdk (or where droidexplorer installed it), or simply type in the full path to execute the command
ie: C:\android-sdk-windows\adb shell dmesg > dmesg.txt
Once you have these files, upload them along with your question (note, the files will be created in the location from which you executed the adb command), and an answer may be found much sooner. If you want to look particularly good, read the logs first, and find the areas that you think are involved. Cut and paste the relevant sections into the body of your question, and say ‘I think the problem is this...’, and you may get an answer even sooner.
Step 3: Cutting edge / bleeding edge
If you’re really eager to help, or are simply really frustrated with a problem and have some coding ability, then this step is for you. First off, know that when you start to play with fire, you may cause problems with your phone, so make sure you keep everything backed up. Titanium Explorer is a common choice to backup your applications and their data onto the SD card, and it may be a good idea to backup the important contents of the SD card too, as they have been known to fail on their own.
If these instructions don’t make sense to you, then think twice if you’re wanting to become involved at this level. This will require some coding ability, and if you want to build it yourself, you`ll need a 64-bit recent linux installation with >1 GB of memory free.
The source code for XDAndroid is located at:
http://gitorious.org/xdandroid (git://gitorious.org/xdandroid/manifest.git)
And there’s several branches from there that contain the useful areas of development. For example, jbruneaux is working on the new audio routing (and thus you can see/follow/contribute to better solutions there), and Howard Chu is working on a variety of hardware issues.
Useful reading can be found at the XDAndroid Wiki Page:
Getting the Source: http://xdandroid.com/wiki/Getting_the_Source
Configuring the Build: http://xdandroid.com/wiki/Build_Configuration
Building and Packaging: http://xdandroid.com/wiki/Building_and_Packaging
If you’re eager to help out with coding, spend some time getting familiar with android first, then ask around or pick something that grabs your interest and get working on it. The IRC is a great place to chat with some of the other developers/contributors, and a few others communicate directly with each other about specific challenges.
irc://chat.freenode.net/xdandroid
The project owner of XDAndroid is Brian Stine, who’s blog often helps give some perspective on what is happening behind the scenes (http://southcape.org/).
Please let me know if there’s any changes you’d suggest to this. My goal is to round out the other guides that have been created with the goal of facilitating clearer communication and increased participation in development.
Great guide!
Couple of suggestions.
It's adb logcat -b radio, not adb shell logcat -b radio. Also, add -v time. Also add regular adb logcat, again with -v time. Also might want to mention the "things to scrub" from these logs - email addresses for example will show up in regular logcats, a whole slew of personal things show up in radio logcats. Seems like a good place to make people aware of that
That's all I have for right now, bravo!
Thanks Arrrghhh,
I had been using adb shell logcat until now, and hadn't noticed I could just use adb logcat - thanks for pointing that out. The -v time is an amazing tag - I wish I had been using that up until now, it's great to isolate when a problem happened. Too bad that's not an option for the dmesg. I've added your suggestions to the post - though I can't seem to find my email address in my current logs.
Cheers.
Great Post!
Hopefully n00bies shall read this
I think "READ THE FAQ" should be included somewhere in Step 1.
Thanks rpierce99, you're right it should be right at the top - and now is.
Hi Guys,
I am planning to make an Android App which will act as a virtual Meditation hall, where many others would have connected to, and this App, should show me the count of the number of people that are currently logged in, it must also show me, the current Idea or Notion or say, a goal, for which the people are meditating, Now, just to clarify, in case you are wondering, In Yoga, there is a practice of Group meditation with a unified thought or unified mental state, so, I am planning to emulate this real life activity, for the Yogic practitioners, also.
Anyways, here is how i imagined it would be,
Module 1: Connect to the server
Module 2: log in
Module 3: Suspension, where the user simply keeps the app on and it will update the status of the hall, i.e. whether any new members have joined in or any has left.
Module 4: exit
Now, I must say, that the only background i have is of Flash, and I am not sure how this would help me out, but I just want to know
1) how to implement modules 1,2,3,4. i.e what is the programming elements i should use, no need for detailed explanation, just to point me out to what to study, because i am just about to start learning android programming and i need to have this app up and running ASAP.
If possible, i would also like to hear how you would segment this app idea into your own modules, if you have any advice on it.
P.S Please bear with me if i had commited any of the noobish mistakes of asking in a wrong category or asking something redundant as I am new to this and It was not intentional.
Thank you
Does anyone know if there is a Guide/CheatSheet for Security Testing Apps on Android?
I am a software tester and whilst I know my way around security testing for the web, I'm looking for a jump start in Security Testing for Android. Just the basics really, things like how to manipulate text fields, cause buffer overruns etc in Apps.
An example case would be an app which we are developing that allows a user to input free text. I want to be able to prove the point that we need to sanitise the user's input here, so ideally, I'd like to know of a string that I can enter, which will cause an undesired effect on the page which displays the user's input.
eg, In a web page, I enter "<IMG SRC=javascript:alert('Sanitise User Input')>" and an alert is fired on displaying that input.
Like I say, I know my way around this type of thing for the web, but I'm not an Android Dev and I don't know how to manipulate the code with my input.
So, Does anyone have any pointers/source of info/ideas?
Thanks Folks,
Noodoo
(Long-time lurker, infrequent poster)
Hi folks,
I would like to get more data about the application life-cycle as it executes on a device. This would mean getting data about the methods executed, api calls used, url's opened, files saved/deleted etc. I have tried a number of tools but always felt more data can be obtained. Kernel modification seems like a good approach towards this goal - would like some guidance on this topic.
What are some things I should follow to achieve this goal ? If there is something already that I can use then please point me in the right direction.
Would love to hear from the folks here on this topic.
I really appreciate any help towards this.
I'm a long time developer but brand new to Android, with my having past experience developing in Unix systems as well as a lot using Cygwin in Windows. I have a newly-installed App that seems popular called 'C Locker'. So far, I've just got the Free version because I'm trying it out to see if it does what I need. Unfortunately, it's now crashing with the Settings that I've enabled, and as a general developer, I'm interested in seeing if I can glean information from the Bugreport (or whatever else I can use...perhaps even gdb on the device itself?) to help me know what specific Settings might be the problem being that there are so many of them and I would prefer to gain some type of help from my phone in figuring out what the bad settings might be that I've enabled that are causing the problem rather than to spend all day flipping them around. I've already scanned through the Bugreport after uploading it to my computer, examining all of the references it makes in there to "com.ccs.lockscreen" with this apparently being the process name for the C-Locker program. I've seen indications in there where it indeed shows that it has crashed, but I couldn't yet discern if it is able to give me pointers as to what the cause of the crashes might have been. Is that possible to gain such information out of these Bugreport files? Or is there a way to run it directly in gdb on my device to perhaps see the stack at the time that it crashes, for which the names provided might help to discern what specifically it was trying but failing to do at the time? If it helps, as an intended future Android developer, I've already gotten Android SDK set up on my computer, although I haven't yet really used it much to speak of for anything. I also have adb working from my computer to the smartphone and even have rooted it using a rare method being that I have an older phone purchased years ago via Amazon that I didn't activate until about a month ago. (It's an LG G4 VS986 version 13B so I couldn't use the popular rooting method for version 11A but instead had to use the "Injection" method which took me FOREVER although I finally got it to work!) And just in case it helps perhaps even to bypass a direct answer to this question (although it will still of course be appreciated), my Settings within C Locker involve having set it to be a Device Admin and to bring it up as the first App upon Reboot as well as I've selected within the Root category to make it a System App as well as my then having Disabled ALL things that typically show on the screen (such as 9-1-1, camera, Etc). I had left it set to the default "Gesture" Unlock method, but whenever I bring up the App again and go into "Unlock Methods", it now immediately crashes each time (as well as upon Restarting the phone!). So this covers the majority of the most significant of the Settings that I've made on it so far to the best of my recollection. And I feel that if I could get some indications from the system as to what the specific errors may be when its crashing (or from a stack trace or whatever else), then it might help me to discern what specific Settings are creating the problem being that perhaps I just have an odd (rare) combination of Settings on it that I can tweak to get it working. My goal is to ultimately get a lockscreen App that I can use a Pattern type Unlock with that allows an UNLIMITED number of Failed Attempts (so that it won't ever Factory Reset my phone after the 10th or ANY number of failures!!!). I also--as mentioned above--don't want ANY shortcuts whatsoever being accessible BEFORE the phone is unlocked...not even 9-1-1. Anyway, so if there's a way to glean information from the Bugreport (or from whatever other methods available) to find the specific cause (involved errors) of this or any other App that's crashing that I do NOT have the source code for (being that I of course am not its developer) then it will be greatly appreciated to know how to best find this information. (And I promise that I've already searched extensively on Google but couldn't filter out its replies all being based on the idea that I'm the developer of the App that's crashing, with my even trying adding phrases such as "not my app" and "not the developer of" Etc to no avail...lol). Thanks.
By the way, if I shouldn't have combined the 'C Locker' Settings details into this post, then please just let me know because I'm new to posting here. Also, unfortunately, if I don't receive any help with this right away, then I'll be forced to start testing different Setting combinations anyway, which would then of course solve this problem but without knowing truly what exactly was causing the issue. Even if so, it will still be helpful in the long run with other potential App crashes to get the answer to this general question.
Unless not disabled by user, all runtime activities in Android are logged, so app crashes and their reason also. You can view this log by means of Android's logcat command-line tool or by means of a LogCat Viewer app. My POV: logcat is essential for determining what an app and the Android OS are doing while the app is running on a device.
BTW: Android's log can be filtered per package, too.
Thanks!
jwoegerbauer said:
Unless not disabled by user, all runtime activities in Android are logged, so app crashes and their reason also. You can view this log by means of Android's logcat command-line tool or by means of a LogCat Viewer app. My POV: logcat is essential for determining what an app and the Android OS are doing while the app is running on a device.
BTW: Android's log can be filtered per package, too.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you, and since posting this, I've been learning more about Android Studio and have used it to actually see the stack trace within the "Android Monitor" pane there in order to find the instant reason why the/ANY (meaning 3rd party as well) App is crashing at the time! Thanks again for the help!