Droid Hype

Update (Nov-12-2010): A new 1-click root apk that can do all the below has been released that works on the Droid X!

If you recently updated to the OTA 2.2 Froyo update, you likely won’t be able to use the one click root apk that was floating around. There’s a method to root via ADB and a semi-one-click Windows batch file, but it seems quite a few people are having driver or ADB access problems.

I came across this root method that works on the Droid 2 and works on the Droid X.

First grab this zip file and empty the contents into the root of your /sdcard.

Login Required

Then go to the market and download the Android Terminal.

- open up your favorite terminal emulator program
- cd /tmp
- cp /sdcard/rage*.bin /tmp/
- chmod 777 rage*.bin
- ./rage*.bin
- ignore it’s output, we are thinking outside of the box here, just wait for it to finish and return a $
- now go to settings -> applications -> manage applications -> running -> terminal and force close that girlie
- relaunch the terminal app and you should be greeted with the friendly # symbol. Toda you now have a root shell
- the rest is pretty much the same.
- mount -o rw,remount -t ext3 /dev/block/mmcblk1p21 /system
- cp /sdcard/Superuser.apk /system/app/Superuser.apk
- cp /sdcard/su /system/bin/su
- cp /sdcard/busybox /system/bin/busybox
- chmod 4755 /system/bin/su
- chmod 4755 /system/bin/busybox
- mount -o ro,remount -t ext3 /dev/block/mmcblk1p21 /system
- exit

Now try any app that requires root (ex: Titanium Backup) and it should prompt for root access.

If you need to revert back to non-root, it’s as simple as deleting the apks you copied over.

- open your trusty terminal app
- you should see a $ symbol, now do the following
- su
- now you should see a # symbol
- mount -o rw,remount -t ext3 /dev/block/mmcblk1p21 /system
- rm /system/app/Superuser.apk
- rm /system/bin/su
- rm /system/bin/busybox
- mount -o ro,remount -t ext3 /dev/block/mmcblk1p21 /system
- reboot your phone.

via [DroidForums]

If you use ADW, Launcher Pro, or Zeam, you most likely have encountered the dreaded home screen redraw problem. We dove into some tips on stopping Launcher Pro from redrawing a while back. That seemed to have helped a few people, but some didn’t see any improvement.

I recently saw a post on the Launcher Pro forums that showed a way for rooted users to force your launcher to stay in memory.

The below steps are written for Terminal Emulator usage. I assume it can be adapted for use with Root Explorer or something similar.

1. Switch user to root by typing su
2. Output the contents of this file: cat /data/local.prop. If you get an error about file not existing, then proceed to step 3. Otherwise, jump to step 4.
3. Echo (add) the following line to your local.prop file: echo ro.HOME_APP_ADJ=1 > /data/local.prop. Reboot your phone and you are all set.
4. If step 2 produced the contents of the file, check to see if you have the ro.HOME_APP_ADJ=1. If not, use a text editor to add it in at the end of the file. Reboot and you are all set.

Hopefully this will stop the annoying redraws that occurs not only in Launcher Pro, but other replacements.

Here’s another quick easy fix for your Droid Incredible (we’re on a roll). Rovio recently released their popular mobile game Angry Birds to the Android world to the delight of many Android users. However, some Dinc owners are not having much luck after downloading the game.

The issue a lot of people seem to be having is that as soon as the game starts loading, it exits out by itself to your homescreen. A tad annoying, but there’s a simple fix for it. As soon as the loading screen comes on (as shown in the above image), start tapping your screen. It does not matter where you tap, just keep tapping and it will bring you to the main menu. Subsequent game launches will not need this little fix — at least I haven’t seen a homescreen crash out yet.

Now go and slingshot your birds

The stock HTC kernel will work for the majority of Droid Incredible users out there. However, if you are in the market to cut down on some battery usage and gain some extra functionality, a custom kernel may be what you need.

There are a few custom kernels available for the Dinc like Hydra and KingKlick which provide overclocking and undervolting options.

This quick guide assumes you are rooted, know how to use ADB, can work your way around Clockworkmod recovery, understand that Nandroid backups are vital, and have some common sense.

Now the problem with installing custom kernels is that there is a good chance they won’t work for your phone. Not all Dincs are made the same, so what may work for others may not work for you. So with that said, sometimes you’ll find yourself loading a kernel, reboot, and find yourself stuck on the white HTC Incredible screen. This does NOT mean you bricked your phone — don’t freak out.

Before doing any kind of custom work, make sure you perform a Nandroid backup.

For my Dinc, I can’t load any Kingklick kernels. Every BFS and CFS version he puts out makes my Dinc lock up at the white HTC screen. After some digging, I may (or may not) have bad memory blocks on my Dinc. So when I try to flash various sized kernels, it sometimes fails and causes a lockup upon reboot.

So now that you are stuck on the white screen, there’s an easy way to fix it with your Nandroid backup and ADB. All you need to do is restore the boot image from your known good backup.

1. Reboot into recovery (hold volume down + power, then select the recovery option) by doing a battery pull.
2. Go into backup and restore -> advanced restore -> select restore boot.
3. Do not reboot your device yet.

I’ve noticed if I rebooted at this point, even the stock kernel would cause the white screen lock up. The reason for this is the extra modules installed in /system/lib/modules from the previous kernel install attempt. Restoring the boot image will not erase the new module(s) or restore your old one(s).

The next steps assume you have ADB access and know how to use it.

1. Connect your USB cable to your Dinc.
2. Go into the mount/unmount menu and mount /system.
3. In an ADB shell, issue the following command: rm /system/lib/modules/*.ko
4. Your previous custom kernel modules should now be deleted. To verify, you can do a list: ls /system/lib/modules
5. (Optional) If you have your module(s) saved to your /sdcard, you can now copy them back into /system/lib/modules.

Now you can go ahead and reload, via the update.zip method, another kernel of your choice. If you want to revert back to stock, you can grab the stock kernel (with undervolt goodness) off of Hydra’s website. For my Dinc, the only custom kernel that worked were the Hydra releases. I’m now cruising at 1.15Ghz without any problems.

You can also restore your complete Nandroid backup (or the boot and system backups) if all you want to do is get back up and running. The method outlined above is a better way to “clean up” if you are testing out various kernels and trying to get them to boot.

Droid Incredible users who want to use Adfree may have a tough time due to the app not being able to write to the correct hosts file. There are two ways around it and both steps require you to be root. From the thread over at the Incredible Forums:

1. Search for Adfree Android on the market
2. Install and run
3. allow it to download and install new hosts file, it will copy it to your sdcard and try to replace /system/etc/hosts but fail (it should reboot the phone shortly)
4. Phone may reboot, this is fine, don’t worry. if it doesn’t reboot, check your SD card for a file simply named “hosts”. if it’s there, then continue on.
5. Power off the phone and hold Volume Down and power.
6. Use volume down to select recovery
7. In clockwork recovery volume down to “partitions menu” and hit the track pad to select
8. Select “mount /system”, “mount /sdcard” and “mount /data”
9. Plug in your usb cord and open a command line on your pc
10. enter adb shell and type: cp /sdcard/hosts /data/data/hosts (This copies the AdFree hosts file from the SD Card to the /data partition, where it can be edited by AdFree)
11. mv /system/etc/hosts /system/etc/hosts.bak (This renames the current hosts file, rather than deleting it, should you ever want to remove AdFree and return to the original hosts file)
12. ln -s /data/data/hosts /system/etc/hosts (This creates a symbolic link, which allows AdFree to edit the hosts file stored in /data while allowing the OS to use the file as if it were stored in /system. You won’t need to reboot into recovery each time you want to update the hosts file!)

If this is a bit too much to handle, there’s an easier way. Head over to the Unrevoked page and install Unrevoked Forever. This will set your phone’s security level to S-OFF, which will allow Adfree to work. Enjoy!

Droid Incredible users will probably know this feeling where they hear the dreaded low battery alert in the middle of the afternoon. With just a few hours under the belt, the stock battery is quite the let down in terms of powering this smartphone. There are a few aftermarket extended batteries like the 1750 or 3500 mAh varieties from Seidio or the oversea 2600 mAh cheapies from eBay. I’ve tried the Seidio and the cheapies and they seem to be great the first few days and then it kind of just goes downhill. Would you be satisfied only being able to pull 5.5hrs on the 1750 mAh Seidio? Nope, neither was I.

Luckily, Verizon had the 2150 HTC branded extended battery and door in stock. I had some great performance with the OEM Motorola Droid 1/2 extended battery, so I thought why not try an OEM HTC extended battery. The package comes with a replacement door, since the extended battery is roughly double the size compared to stock.

I was real happy to start using this new found power, but in doing so, I lost the ability to use my Seidio Innocase Active. I’ve grown to really like the combination of a hard case and a silicone case in one. So to remedy this roadblock, I grabbed my utility knife, some snips, and a metal file and started working on the case.

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