Question and Answer about Android from Stack Exchange network.

I'm a fan/contributor/user of FOSS, but not an RMS-style purist. Is there some advantage I'd get installing OSMAnd or VLC, etc. from there instead of the playstore? Some privacy thing or frequent updates?

I'm basically worried that I'd be hurting VLC's exposure by not adding to their download numbers in the playstore with no real advantage for me or VLC or FOSS in general. I'm explicitly asking if I know an app is FOSS and ensure the author's the right one, why not download from the playstore?

I need help..

I have a redmi 4a device, with android 7, I formatted a 64 gb ADATA SD card as internal storage, worked great for long, until after a restart the SD card is corrupted with precious data on it..

It says tap to format, but it doesn't format, I tried on my laptop and windows cd and Easeus partition manager, but none worked..

I lost hope to fix the SD card, but the phone isn't accepting to show photos or store any data, even with new card identical to the old is mounted.. it says unmount usb storage.. When I try to see a photo status on whatsapp, says can't download because no internal storage is available, please unmount it as a disk drive, and try again.. Also I can't see any picture sent to me in chat..

I tried to format the new card as internal, but same problem..

Any help?

How do I access $HOME/storage Termux directory on Android Pie with a GUI File Explorer?

In Termux I print the working directory with pwd and it shows $HOME/storage as:

/data/data/com.termux/files/home

My internal storage looks like this:

.
├── Alarms
├── Android
|   ├──data
|   |  ├── ...
|   |  ├── com.termux
|   |  |   └── files
|   |  |       └── 0 items
|   |  └── ...
|   └── ...
├── DCIM
├── Download
└── ...

My external storage looks like this:

.
├── Android
|   ├──data
|   |  ├── ...
|   |  ├── com.termux
|   |  |   └── files
|   |  |       └── 0 items
|   |  └── ...
|   └── ...
└── LOST.DIR

Neither my internal storage, nor my sd card, contain a /data/ directory at the root level. Where is this /data/ directory? For that matter, where is the root /storage/ directory? Where is the root /emulated/ directory? Where are any of these directories and why cant I access any of them?

Recently, fingerprint sensor on my Note8 lost phone unlocking ability. How can I troubleshoot this?

Once the phone is unlocked, it still works normally: it...

• identifies already registered fingers (in fingerprint setup section)
• unlocks Samsung Pass
• pulls down and retracts the status bar (this works even in locked mode)

So far I...

• uninstalled all apps which were installed last week
• de-registered all fingerprints (what in turn disabled unlocking via reader) and registered them again
• checked the list of assistance apps, but all items are currently switched off
  • there were numerous device restarts during all these experiments – still no success

What else can I try?

I'm trying to take a screenshot of Samsung Galaxy Fold's smaller display.

I use

shell screencap -p /sdcard/testss1.png

but it only captures the main display ― which is off ― and gets a black image.

How to change the display used for capturing?

I am using Google Sheets on Android and have several columns frozen on the left, but the app seems to have a fixed width for the frozen columns. Is it possible to change this width?

I am performing a backup using the following command with a su shell:

dd if=/dev/block/mmcblk0 of=/mnt/expand/ee131623-1634-25d1-9f9f-902b68eceaee/mmcblk0.img"

And I was wondering if this would fail to complete as it would include the backup in the backup?

Is Internally formatted external sd cards included in mmcblk0?

Google has declared EOL for the original Pixel. I got my Pixel for a Google Fi account I use just for travelling, and I'm not really interested in replacing it. Realistically, how much longer can I use my original-release Pixel before it stops functioning?

Can Android device with fully overwritten /dev/mmcblk0 (without /dev/mmcblk0p* partitions) be still flashed using fastboot? Is it true that overwriting /dev/mmcblk0 does not remove /dev/mmcblk0boot* partitions?

The phone is Samsung Galaxy Note N7000. For the last few years I use NightOwl custom rom (Android 7). I do not remember when I faced with this problem, maybe after repartitioning with REPIT (but author says that probably not), but now I cannot make photos - photo app says that I need to insert SD card, but I can make photos through the Evernote app. Also in WhatsUp I cannot see photos because my phone cannot download them, and web browsers cannot download any file. But I can install most of the programs, and for example Evernote cache my notes.

Inside recovery mode, in TWRP, I found that I have partition sdcard1 that is 0 bytes in size. Maybe if I remove this partition it will fix my storage problem?

I tried to flash the same ROM again. I asked in thread about this ROM, but nobody answered. The phone is without external SD card. When in Settings I open Storage - it crash.

logcat -b all | grep -iE 'vold|storage': log.

/proc/last_kmsg and dmesg: log.

mount returned:

rootfs on / type rootfs (ro,seclabel,relatime)
tmpfs on /dev type tmpfs (rw,seclabel,nosuid,relatime,mode=755)
devpts on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,seclabel,relatime,mode=600)
proc on /proc type proc (rw,relatime)
sysfs on /sys type sysfs (rw,seclabel,relatime)
selinuxfs on /sys/fs/selinux type selinuxfs (rw,relatime)
none on /acct type cgroup (rw,relatime,cpuacct)
tmpfs on /mnt type tmpfs (rw,seclabel,relatime,mode=755,gid=1000)
none on /dev/memcg type cgroup (rw,relatime,memory)
none on /dev/cpuctl type cgroup (rw,relatime,cpu)
/dev/block/mmcblk0p9 on /system type ext4 (ro,seclabel,noatime,user_xattr,barrier=1,data=ordered)
/dev/block/mmcblk0p7 on /cache type ext4 (rw,seclabel,nosuid,nodev,noatime,errors=panic,user_xattr,barrier=1,journal_async_commit,data=ordered)
/dev/block/mmcblk0p1 on /efs type ext4 (rw,seclabel,nosuid,nodev,noatime,user_xattr,barrier=1,journal_async_commit,data=ordered)
/dev/block/mmcblk0p10 on /data type ext4 (rw,seclabel,nosuid,nodev,noatime,errors=panic,user_xattr,barrier=1,journal_async_commit,data=ordered,noauto_da_alloc)
tmpfs on /storage type tmpfs (rw,seclabel,relatime,mode=755,gid=1000)
/sys/kernel/debug on /sys/kernel/debug type debugfs (rw,seclabel,relatime)
/dev/block/vold/public:179_11 on /mnt/media_rw/S}M-^^M-~4M-9^DK $t type vfat (rw,dirsync,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,uid=1023,gid=1023,fmask=0007,dmask=0007,allow_utime=0020,codepage=cp437,iocharset=iso8859-1,shortname=mixed,utf8,errors=remount-ro)
/dev/block/vold/public:179_11 on /mnt/secure/asec type vfat (rw,dirsync,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,uid=1023,gid=1023,fmask=0007,dmask=0007,allow_utime=0020,codepage=cp437,iocharset=iso8859-1,shortname=mixed,utf8,errors=remount-ro)
/dev/fuse on /mnt/runtime/default/S}M-^^M-~4M-9^DK $t type fuse (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,noatime,user_id=1023,group_id=1023,default_permissions,allow_other)
/dev/fuse on /storage/S}M-^^M-~4M-9^DK $t type fuse (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,noatime,user_id=1023,group_id=1023,default_permissions,allow_other)
/dev/fuse on /mnt/runtime/read/S}M-^^M-~4M-9^DK $t type fuse (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,noatime,user_id=1023,group_id=1023,default_permissions,allow_other)
/dev/fuse on /mnt/runtime/write/S}M-^^M-~4M-9^DK $t type fuse (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,noatime,user_id=1023,group_id=1023,default_permissions,allow_other)

blkid:

/dev/block/zram0: UUID="da191bea-c7ca-4b27-af09-ce87c7f99943" TYPE="swap" 
/dev/block/mmcblk0p1: UUID="57f8f4bc-abf4-0000-675f-946fc0f9f25b" TYPE="ext4" 
/dev/block/mmcblk0p7: UUID="57f8f4bc-abf4-655f-bf67-946fc0f9f25b" TYPE="ext4" 
/dev/block/mmcblk0p9: LABEL="system" UUID="da594c53-9beb-f85c-85c5-cedf76546f7a" TYPE="ext4" 
/dev/block/mmcblk0p10: UUID="57f8f4bc-abf4-655f-bf67-946fc0f9f25b" TYPE="ext4" 
/dev/block/mmcblk0p11: LABEL="S}M-^^M-~4M-9^DK $t" UUID="7F73-0B1A" TYPE="vfat" 
/dev/block/mmcblk0p12: UUID="49f005e2-2f62-448b-9ba1-3e4da2ee1b41" TYPE="ext4" 

# cat fstab.smdk4210:

# Android fstab file.
#<src>                                      <mnt_point>             <type>    <mnt_flags and options>                                   <fs_mgr_flags>
# The filesystem that contains the filesystem checker binary (typically /system) cannot
# specify MF_CHECK, and must come before any filesystems that do specify MF_CHECK
# data partition must be located at the bottom for supporting device encryption

/dev/block/mmcblk0p9                        /system                 ext4      ro,noatime                                                wait
/dev/block/mmcblk0p7                        /cache                  ext4      noatime,nosuid,nodev,journal_async_commit,errors=panic    wait,check,formattable
/dev/block/mmcblk0p7                        /cache                  f2fs      noatime,nosuid,nodev,inline_data,inline_xattr,discard     wait,check,formattable
/dev/block/mmcblk0p1                        /efs                    ext4      noatime,nosuid,nodev,journal_async_commit,errors=panic    wait,check,notrim
/dev/block/mmcblk0p10                       /data                   ext4      noatime,nosuid,nodev,noauto_da_alloc,journal_async_commit,errors=panic    wait,check,formattable,encryptable=/efs/metadata
/dev/block/mmcblk0p10                       /data                   f2fs      noatime,nosuid,nodev,inline_data,inline_xattr,discard     wait,check,formattable,encryptable=/efs/metadata
# /dev/block/mmcblk0p12                       /preload                ext4      noatime,nosuid,nodev,journal_async_commit                 wait

# vold-managed volumes ("block device" is actually a sysfs devpath)
/devices/platform/dw_mmc/mmc_host/mmc0/mmc0*     auto    auto    defaults        voldmanaged=sdcard0:11,nonremovable,noemulatedsd
/devices/platform/s3c-sdhci.2/mmc_host/mmc1*     auto    auto    defaults        voldmanaged=sdcard1:auto,encryptable=userdata
/devices/platform/s3c_otghcd/usb*                auto    auto    defaults        voldmanaged=usb:auto

# recovery
/dev/block/mmcblk0p5                        /boot                   emmc      defaults      recoveryonly
/dev/block/mmcblk0p6                        /recovery               emmc      defaults      recoveryonly

# zRAM
/dev/block/zram0    

I am working with Android 8, Android verified boot with dm-verity, and block-based differential seamless A/B updates. To my understanding, the Android update_engine performs some validations of the received update image before it proceeds to write the target partitions. AFAIK, update_engine checks if the differential update can be installed atop the current partitions. How is this check performed?

I can imagine two possibilities, but I haven't found authoritative documentation of either hypothesis:

1. The differential update package contains a linear hash of the source partition. On the device, update_enigne computes a SHA-256 hash of the entire partition on top of which the differential update is to be applied. It compares this value with the one provided as part of the update package and proceeds only if the two values agree.
2. The differential update package contains the dm-verity root hash of the Merkle-Tree used for block-wise validation with dm-verity. The update_engine compares this target root-hash with the one provided on the device in the vbmeta structure. Only if the two match, it proceeds to install the update.

Is either one of these hypotheses correct, or am I missing something? Similarly, how does the update_engine validate the target partitions once they have been written? Via a linear hash, or using the root hash? Or otherwise?

I have a Samsung Note 9 (Android version 9) and Google Pay installed and configured. It works on stores like Costa for payments under £35 only when phone is unlocked

As per https://support.google.com/pay/answer/7644132?hl=en "No unlock needed for smaller payments"

Does anyone know why this is the case? I'd like that no unlocking is required for small payments.

I have a rooted system-as-root Samsung Device and I am trying to run an init service which runs custom.sh script using u:r:su:s0 SELinux context.

# define service, use executable here if script not needed
service custom /system/bin/custom.sh

    # don't start unless explicitly asked to
    disabled

    # Use `seclabel u:r:magisk:s0` to run with unrestricted SELinux context to avoid avc denials
    # can also use "u:r:su:s0" on userdebug / eng builds if no Magisk.
    # It's required if SELinux is enforcing and service needs access
    # to some system resources not allowed by default sepolicy
    seclabel u:r:su:s0

# start the service when boot is completed
on property:sys.boot_completed=1
    # Use it to start the service
    start custom

As per my understanding, the rules for transition from init context to su context is not defined so, I should get avc: denial error.

But, I am getting permission denied error as following:

init: cannot execve('/system/bin/custom.sh'): Permission denied

I have checked the permission of custom.sh file and it is as following:

-r-xr-xr-- 1 root root 153 2019-11-04 13:25 /system/custom.sh

Please suggest what is happening here and how can I fix it?

I have a rooted Samsung device(system-as-root). When I open adb shell and run the dmesg then it behaves differently for su and normal user. It throws

dmesg: klogctl: Permission denied

error when I run it without su shell.

Please suggest how can I fix this?

I have a Samsung S10 5G device that is actually a system-as-root device. I have rooted it by following the instructions given here.

As the system-as-root devices have no ramdisk in boot.img but in recovery.img so, I have to always boot the device with a recovery combination to get the root access.

Is there any way to achieve the root on a normal reboot?

I have a full ROM image of the device so, I believe there should be some way. Please share your thoughts.

Further to this question What are the alternatives for Xposed framework on Pie? Preferably without triggering Safety Net?

How does one install EdXposed on Android 10?

Notes:

1. This is a self answered question consolidating information from several threads on XDA / Github and my experience on Oneplus 7 to give a helpful start to that dying breed who like to install xposed-framework modules . Edxposed is still in beta and Android 10 is recently released, so there would be many changes to this answer in future. Since I do not intend to update this answer with developments, others are welcome to add and modify. Moderators are welcome to make this a community wiki if warranted.

2. Answer is generic in nature and for issues relating to installation / modules you are better off asking in respective device/module threads in XDA.

The HTC U11 Life got my attention when I saw androidone printed on its back. Now I got one, but this one doesn't have the androidone print on its back. Are there two versions of the phone, one to support androidone and another that doesn't?

Is there a setting I can check that would clearly tell me whether my phone supports androidone or not?

It came with Android 8.0.0 and it says there are no Software updates available...

Update: According to the HTC website there are indeed two versions of the phone: one such and another with a (T-Mobile) suffix. Upon booting the phone there is a T-Mobile screen, thus it looks like I’ve got the T-Mobile version. The question remains though: is this version of the phone not part of the android one program?

I would like to know how MIUI can provide features on all devices that have the same version of MIUI on it, without the same Android version?

I made a bunch of hands free voice notes while I was driving and now I need to process them from my computer, which has my to do list on it (which I cannot access from my phone). However, I cannot seem to figure out how to do this. When I ask Google Assistant where my notes are, it shows me a long list and says they are stored in Google Keep. However, I do not see them in Keep.

As a workaround, I tried copying my notes on my phone, but it would not let me select more than one at a time.

When a new message arrives, my phone lights up the screen for 2 seconds and plays a notification sound.

If you miss it, you'll never know that you have new messages, unless you turn on the screen.

Is there any way to make it beep every 5 minutes or so?