New to the forum have some questions - Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

HI guys hope I'm posting In the right place. Iv been trying to learn as much as I about flashing tuning and programming from phones to cars. Would love any advice. Or poineed in the right way were I can learn what's needed. I'm trying to figure out a good hardware set up to atlas flash phones would be awesome if I could flash cars as well. I'm trying to use a Samsung s5 or samsung tablet. If there won't work due to ram or memory I'll get something else

Start from somewhere and be persistant! Things may not work at first but as you do it, you sorta get a feeling for it. You can even take lessons in this.

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Just Got My First Smart Phone Ever: ATRIX 4G, Lots of Questions

Hello there, Since I am somewhat poor and I´m still under my parents wing... I upgrade phones about every 5 years, (well at least until I start working) so i was really outdated with phones but i did my homework and got to the conclusion that Android based phones are the best price x performance/ features.. specifically Motorola brand around the $200 mark so my decision was between the Droid 3, Photon 4g & Atrix 4G.. I decided for the Atrix with the lapdock which i think is the best feature until now!
This it my first smartphone ever! laugh at this.. I´m upgrading form a Motorola Rokr em35 which i remember that i bought for $180 because it was a music player based phone that had a 3.5mm headphone jack! and now i bought the atrix with the lapdock for $250 on eBay.
Im just learning how to use the phone I´m hoping for some guidance on some things i should and shouldn't do!
first off.. My phone is blocked.. so Im thinking about buying an unlock code for about $2 since its blocked in my country (Dom. Rep.) ,, hows that about?
i want to learn all about the cool stuff i can do with the phone.
learn about custom roms and themes... Ive heard theres roms that are really optimized for the Atrix 4G and even overclocked!! but i dont want to loose the webtop ability?
I heard that you can make a partition on a micro sd and install a Full Ubuntu OS ... which im most exited about! even thought ive never used linux!
Luckily im into computers since I study computer science/engineering and these things shouldn't be hard for me to learn.
im really eager to get on to this stuff and I hope i can get somebody to guide and help me though all this! i hope this is the right place
Before doing any unlocking, or custom roms, etc. READ, RE-READ IT, THEN READ IT ALL AGAIN. until you understand what you are doing.
as for ubuntu ( linux ) on your phone, you said that you never used linux before. I would learn the basics with linux, on a computer, before slapping it on your phone and not understading the OS. But thats up to you. its just easier to learn it on a pc from start, rather than on a phone that you dont even understand yet.
No question here, is a dumb question, so ask away, ( just remember to search before asking so ya dont get the crap flammed out of ya )
once ya start learning linux, you will love it. its better than windows.
Good Luck!
pcrat said:
Before doing any unlocking, or custom roms, etc. READ, RE-READ IT, THEN READ IT ALL AGAIN. until you understand what you are doing.
as for ubuntu ( linux ) on your phone, you said that you never used linux before. I would learn the basics with linux, on a computer, before slapping it on your phone and not understading the OS. But thats up to you. its just easier to learn it on a pc from start, rather than on a phone that you dont even understand yet.
No question here, is a dumb question, so ask away, ( just remember to search before asking so ya dont get the crap flammed out of ya )
once ya start learning linux, you will love it. its better than windows.
Good Luck!
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thanks, I´ll read as much as I have to.. can you post me some good links on these sfuff.. but first i wanna unlock and root the phone. I seen vendors on ebay that provide you with an unlock code for your IMEI. should i do that¿
edit: btw i am familiar with ubuntus UI since Ive used it a few times but never had it personally for me so i dont now things like commands lines and that advanced stuff. i just like the idea of using the lapdock as a notebook and not being limited by the ROM/OS ... would be good for collage.
antmiu2 said:
thanks, I´ll read as much as I have to.. can you post me some good links on these sfuff.. but first i wanna unlock and root the phone. I seen vendors on ebay that provide you with an unlock code for your IMEI. should i do that¿
edit: btw i am familiar with ubuntus UI since Ive used it a few times but never had it personally for me so i dont now things like commands lines and that advanced stuff. i just like the idea of using the lapdock as a notebook and not being limited by the ROM/OS ... would be good for collage.
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the wiki has most the guides, roms, and other stuff listed out, and its mostly up to date.. you should definitely read through the noob guide first because it has all the terminology you'll be seeing throughout the rest of the forums
If you want to keep your webtop the roms I would recommend are darkside or wetdream, both by Nottach..they have a ton of great features..of course there are others and I recommend you go through all of them and find whats right for you..just avoid cyanogen mod(CM7, CM9) based roms because they do not include webtop or any close alternative for now
Just remember, take your time on rooting and unlocking your bootloader, because you can really mess things up, but after that everything else should be pretty easy..
And don't worry too much about your rom selection, if you back everything up properly you should be able to switch roms in under an hour, so you can try out many different roms before settling on which one you like best(such a hard choice!)
thewarhawk said:
the wiki has most the guides, roms, and other stuff listed out, and its mostly up to date.. you should definitely read through the noob guide first because it has all the terminology you'll be seeing throughout the rest of the forums
If you want to keep your webtop the roms I would recommend are darkside or wetdream, both by Nottach..they have a ton of great features..of course there are others and I recommend you go through all of them and find whats right for you..just avoid cyanogen mod(CM7, CM9) based roms because they do not include webtop or any close alternative for now
Just remember, take your time on rooting and unlocking your bootloader, because you can really mess things up, but after that everything else should be pretty easy..
And don't worry too much about your rom selection, if you back everything up properly you should be able to switch roms in under an hour, so you can try out many different roms before settling on which one you like best(such a hard choice!)
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thanks so much for being kind with this noob
It can't be overstated though. READ. I've been toying with my Atrix for a couple of months now, and came close to bricking my phone since I didn't read it all. By all I don't mean only posts about the developer, but problems people have encountered with their specific atrix model.
You've got to read a lot though.
The Atrix was my first Android and I have to say I couldn't be happier with the level of customisation you can get.
mayhemrules said:
It can't be overstated though. READ. I've been toying with my Atrix for a couple of months now, and came close to bricking my phone since I didn't read it all. By all I don't mean only posts about the developer, but problems people have encountered with their specific atrix model.
You've got to read a lot though.
The Atrix was my first Android and I have to say I couldn't be happier with the level of customisation you can get.
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yes, im reading the wiki link thewarhawk gave me, i want to be careful not to brick it.. because i cant send it back to the US to att ... if any thing i´ll make another help me thread

[Q] Point me to the kitchen?

Howdy All,
Well to cut a long story short, I have broken my leg, rather badly, to the point of minimum 6 months in a wheelchair sort of break. No big deal, it will heal, but I figure it gives me a hell of a lot of downtime, which means I may just have time to get into this cooking thing.
I've found a few guides, but they all seem to be device specific, and reccomend further reading without pointing one in the direction of where to do that reading.
Can any one point me to some resources and get me into the kitchen? Any help would be muchly appreciated!
Cheers,
JD
Really? Not one suggestion?
I'm not asking you to do the work for me, I just need a little help in which direction to head. I'm looking for documentation and resources, and after being elbow deep in google searches, the best I can find is some tool that takes a stock i9000 rom and makes it flashable.
I've been playing with roms for a long while, I've dabbled in coding both with android's bastardised java and a few other languages. I'm not here saying please hold my hand, I'm just wondering how the chefs here got started.
There seems to be a distinct lack of documentation or information to bridge the gap from never having cooked a rom to noob chef. Once I get that under my belt I will have a better idea about what I specifically need to learn more about
This is a community yeah? Surely if that's the case, there's at least some advice for someone who is interested in starting development. Give something back and all? I'm not here to take someone elses work, put some themes on top and release it as my own, I'm genuinely interested in learning more about the OS and understanding what makes these things tick.
I'm sure you all didn't fall off the toilet while hanging a clock and wake later with an understanding of the metaphorical flux capacitor that powers custom ROMS, all I am interested in is how to get started, how did you get started, what should I be reading about?
Thanks in advance for any help.
JuzzyDee said:
Really? Not one suggestion?
I'm not asking you to do the work for me, I just need a little help in which direction to head. I'm looking for documentation and resources, and after being elbow deep in google searches, the best I can find is some tool that takes a stock i9000 rom and makes it flashable.
Its the post topic kitchens are in the Dev section
But you want something different to a kitchen to put together a rom you are looking to learn how to build a rom .The route is probably the XDA developers forum front page .
http://forum.xda-developers.com/
jje
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Down the hallway, first door on your right
But seriously, wouldn't have a clue. Just bumping this for you.
Sent from my GT-I9100T

[Q] Comment about terminology and process

I am a new Xperia Ultra owner and whilst not planning to do any flashing just yet I thought tonight I'd take a quick look at threads discussing steps that would be involved in doing this.
Let me qualify what I'm about to say by stating that I appreciate people on this site who develop tools which allow us to hack our devices so we can make better use of our phones. They are incredibly skilled, gifted and generous with their time. I would love to be able to spend the time learning how to do this but I simply don't have the time. So please don't take what I am about to say as a criticism but more as an observation, considering the effort contributors put into this it would indeed be incredibly foolish of me to criticise anyone here.
I can probably safely say that none of the contributors are also trained technical writers and a fair number do not have English as their first language. Its my first and only language and I often have difficulty getting the meaning across succinctly not to mind getting the spelling right . And I know even for large software houses support documentation is not a priority.
I want to approach hacking my phone with confidence this time round. In the past I've reflashed several phones for myself and friends and simply followed steps and not really understanding completely what the hell I was doing. Lordmanhattan I know I sent you an email regarding a contradiction on your thread. And you very kindly got back to me very quickly.....amazing, thank you. And then there is the "TA partition", WTH is that? I did very briefly google this to find a quick answer but no joy....grrrr (also looked in the XDA Wiki acronyms) I'm sure if I looked hard enough I'd find it. It's mentioned everywhere but nobody seems to be offering an explanation what it is or what it does or why it's important or what it stands for !!!!
Very often I find threads on here describing how to do something hard to follow and this is often for the following reasons:
It could be that there is more than one way to achieve something so its a case of different people offering varied procedures, this can be confusing
A process may be described but then to the newbie the author seems to miss out on a step that to the experienced is obvious
The level of English used leads the reader to scratching their head wondering ...did he/she mean this or that
Threads not being updated or corrected even after feedback
Okay I won't go on.
So I have decided my time might be well spent doing some background research before delving into messing about with my Xperia Z Ultra and saving you guys from having to deal with daft questions from me.
Now does this mean I have to spend time reading through threads and trying to piece it all together to find the best way through and possibly getting the wrong end of the stick or reading superseded posts?
OR
Are there a couple of sites that will get me up to speed understanding the terminology, hardware, memory management, etc for my phone?
I have a feeling it's going to be a bit of both......your suggestions please
Oh, I stumbled across XDA University but got the impression it wasn't being maintained???
Some of the pages I visited....
A New User’s Guide to Android.......unfortunately none of the images for this page loaded
Video guides .................................had flash presentations which didn't load
Ferg8080 said:
I am a new Xperia Ultra owner...
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A good and detailed post, and it's not just the dev's and support that could take note. Some of the people that ask questions really need to read your post and think about what they are trying to say, get help with -- we aren't mind readers either.
I always try and help anew user by using as few TLA as possible in a reply to them. I also try to do the steps as #'d lists with as many steps as possible.
I do think LordManhattan's guide needs a little love as a few things are a little out of date - but it is as comprehensive guide as you could get, and most vagaries are covered in the thread.
TA = trim area, where your unique DRM keys are stored, and god only knows what else.
Thanks for your well written post! First I want to say - like Blueether just did, that we are not mind readers, so we can't possible know people's skill level or what they want to do. That's why I've started to ask them straight up what they want to do and where in the process they are. That way it'll be easier for me to help the other person, and hopefully write a short but complete step by step guide. It won't happen that often, but if I got some time to spare, why not.
My guide is a little out of date now, and I have planned to update it for quite some time, but things are moving so god damn quick around here that even I will get outdated if I take a short break. I recently sent my Ultra in for repairs, and 12 days later when I got it back and ready to get back in the game, a new firmware had been released with a new rooting method. I knew everything one day, and nothing on the other. It's really hard to balance real life and being kept updated at all times. Don't forget that you must be sure about what you know and write when you make a guide, because you don't want to brick people's devices. One slipup and the consequences might be ugly.
There are (of course) one or four ways of doing things around here, and you'll probably get different ways of doing things if you ask me or blueether about rooting or flashing custom ROMs. I guess it's just the way it is. New methods also pop up once in awhile, so some people will adopt these new methods while some other people will stick with the old school method, thus making things a little more complicated for new people who are looking for reliable information.
The TA partition is, like blueether already said, your device's unique DRM keys which makes X-Reality (and other minor things, I guess) work. It's important to make a backup of this partition since you'll lose it when you unlock the bootloader. Why would you unlock the bootloader? You have to unlock it if you want to flash custom ROMs, or if you want to make rooting easier. The problem is that you need to be rooted to back it up, so you'll have to spend some time reading and researching before you start.
Just keep your Ultra stock for now, and just casually read and soak up stuff from different threads around here. Walk around like you do in a new city and check out the locals and see what they do and say. You'll pick up a few things here and there and things will start rolling from there.
Sent from my C6806_GPe using Tapatalk
blueether said:
A good and detailed post, and it's not just the dev's and support that could take note. Some of the people that ask questions really need to read your post and think about what they are trying to say, get help with -- we aren't mind readers either.
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LordManhattan said:
a new firmware had been released with a new rooting method. I knew everything one day, and nothing on the other. It's really hard to balance real life and being kept updated at all times. Don't forget that you must be sure about what you know and write when you make a guide, because you don't want to brick people's devices. One slipup and the consequences might be ugly.
some other people will stick with the old school method, thus making things a little more complicated for new people who are looking for reliable information.
Just keep your Ultra stock for now, and just casually read and soak up stuff from different threads around here.
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Yes you can see some people just rush in with questions without giving serious thought to what they want to achieve. I think its people who don't often understand the process properly, haven't thought it through and are following what seems like a straightforward step by step process. Understanding what you are doing requires patience and TIME.
XDA I think is an unrivalled repository of amazing contributions from amazing people on a technology that is constantly evolving. Its also a jungle. One doesn't go into the jungle unprepared
Thanks for the fantastic advice guys and I will heed but I can't promise I might come out with some corkers
One last thing, how on earth do you find the time to lead a normal life? You obviously love what you are doing. It might be easy to assume everyone who contributes here is in IT. I imagine there are plumbers, electricians, mechanics, office workers, retired folk.....

some basic questions...

Hi all, so it seems our device isnt getting much support or anything so I've decided to take the plunge try to learn something about porting and see if i can port something to our device... for me its not such a risk as the phone was basically a gift so if it gets bricked ill be sad but not end of the world sad...
so first off i have a few questions
1 the code name all the phones seem to have dev codenames... and of course i notices in the jmz kernal we are downloading the a3ul kernal. so is this the actual name for our phone.. i ask because there are some stock roms and i thought i could maybe make these the base to start from...
2 can you give me some ideas of comparable phones i checked the htc mini one and two while close they both have different cams so i would like suggestions as to other devices so i can try downloading roms and taking them apart to see what i can find out...
3 to any devs, could you recommend some good sites to give me basics in either A)-porting a rom for us, B)-compiling a rom from some source or lastly and really hope leastly the idea of developing something myself somehow...
thanks
Im no developer, but I have recently been looking into this myself and the XDA University seems to hold some fairly thorough guides, I have just not had the time to start anything yet
W1LD3G30RG3 said:
Im no developer, but I have recently been looking into this myself and the XDA University seems to hold some fairly thorough guides, I have just not had the time to start anything yet
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preaching to the choir bud... i got 2 kids i teach full time and one more baby on the way time is one thing in limited supply.. but i really love this little device so it would be a shame if it went un-developed...

How do I theme my new rooted device?

Hello, I was wondering why is there no newb section on this website? surely it would help all the new comers like myself who have no idea what they're doing.
I recently rooted my device for the purpose of changing some Personal Hotspot settings so I decided to look at the other benefits I could get from rooting and one of them is Themes. My question is why is it so hard to theme your device? I thought alot of these theming apps were one click proceedurs however it is not at all the case, speaking of complications when I rooted my device I accidently deleted touchwiz home and ended up stuck on Easy Mode for a whole day even after fully wiping/resetting until I figured out the problem. I still have standard mode showing as easy mode on my device but its actually got a launcher for now so it's all good.
Anyway It would of been good to have noob/newb section on this website so I could get to grips with everything there is to know or most things anyway. Right now I don't really know where to look on this website as there are too many threads that contain complicated titles with terms I never even heard of before so let alone reading the whole threads where I just hear myself reading on and on with no understanding what so ever.
Am going to stop my little rant here, if anyone can direct me on how to setup some easy themes it would be appreciated.
MatadorZXDA said:
Hello, I was wondering why is there no newb section on this website? surely it would help all the new comers like myself who have no idea what they're doing.
I recently rooted my device for the purpose of changing some Personal Hotspot settings so I decided to look at the other benefits I could get from rooting and one of them is Themes. My question is why is it so hard to theme your device? I thought alot of these theming apps were one click proceedurs however it is not at all the case, speaking of complications when I rooted my device I accidently deleted touchwiz home and ended up stuck on Easy Mode for a whole day even after fully wiping/resetting until I figured out the problem. I still have standard mode showing as easy mode on my device but its actually got a launcher for now so it's all good.
Anyway It would of been good to have noob/newb section on this website so I could get to grips with everything there is to know or most things anyway. Right now I don't really know where to look on this website as there are too many threads that contain complicated titles with terms I never even heard of before so let alone reading the whole threads where I just hear myself reading on and on with no understanding what so ever.
Am going to stop my little rant here, if anyone can direct me on how to setup some easy themes it would be appreciated.
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Greetings an welcome to xda. We did have a forum called xda assist where all newbies could basically ask any question, it became unsustainable due to the fact it became a free tech help line for every device.
Most phone's have their own dedicated Q&A thread where you can ask anything. If you can tell me the device you have I maybe able to help you or point you in the right direction at least
Regards
Sawdoctor

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