yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Motorola Droid RAZR] Ohmster:
[MENTION=3313632]ChungHung.Chen[/MENTION]

Awesome Mr. Chen! Have you tried to use it on your phone? Not even "just to test it out" and see what changes, if any, show on your /About Phone/ or /About Phone/Status/ screens? Right below your post, I am trying to assist [MENTION=2774395]my2cents[/MENTION] and have offered him a copy of my /pds file in a zip, along with the text file of file & folder list with permissions and owners.

He is having connectivity problems, like, "Forever". Do you think he could drop my /pds file on his phone, run wifical.sh and it would help him with his network issues? We know it will duplicate my WiFi MAC to his phone, not a big deal unless we try to connect to the same wireless network at the same time. We could, of course, change that MAC address for him. Could you be a great pal and look over what I posted to him to see if you spot any hazards or issues to be aware of, Mr. Chen? Also, anything you might have to add would be greatly appreciated.

Mr. Chen, I do so apologize very much for putting you under such pressure. As an IT Engineer of 10+ years, I would think that makes you as qualified or more so than anyone else to attempt a merging of one's phone's /pds folder into another, similar device. You understand Linux, thus Android filesystems, the owner, group, and world permissions of the files and folders. We have gone over the WiFi MAC address in the nvs_map.bin file and how to alter it. Can you

please

test this by using the /pds folder you have and merge it into your own device? Compare the /About Phone/ and /About Phone/Status/ screens, both before the folder insertion and after to see what, if anything, it changes on your phone? I realize that I ask a great deal from you, Mr. Chen. But, as Senior Members, we are often called to duty to help others in the group and supply the answers that they and us desperately seek to repair, maintain, and improve our devices.

This is a call to duty, but, as a citizen, you are under no obligation to participate in any way. No one will think bad of it if you cannot assist.

But, if you can, you will be immortalized as one of the groups "Giants" who rise to occasion and get the job done! (Awwww, you are already a "Giant" in my book, you have never turned down a request for help or refused to supply your own results with the rest of us when asked.)

Thank you for your time, your assistance, and your patience in reading all of this. Goodnight my friend, it is always a pleasure to speak with you, Mr. Chen. :victory:

...by the way. If and when we ever do get to meet up for lunch one day, what would you like to have? Chinese, cheeseburgers, Philly Cheese Steak sandwiches, French, or something else? Lunch is one of my favorite things in life Mr. Chen, why not make it lunch? :D
[Motorola Droid RAZR] ChungHung.Chen:
According to stargo's valuable information about /pds, there are some private information in /pds. But in my experience, when I lost my /pds, only nvs_map.bin is required to make my XT910 work normal again. I do not use HDCP nor DRM related apps so I can live without these files. And yes, I've copied some files from mikeoswego's pds files but seems nothing different in my daily usage, perhaps we need some apps to do more test.

Because I can't bring my XT910 to my office, I will check what files I've copied tonight., maybe camera calibration data which should be same in all XT910/XT912?
[Motorola Droid RAZR] d.casper.b:
Wow, all this talk about WiFi MAC is back. ;)

I was also in this boat some time back. Very simply, I just modified the 'nvs_map.bin' to my old MAC address that I was luckily able to retrieve.

Copied this modified file to '/pds/wifi' (it was empty), opened terminal and typed: "su {enter} wifical.sh {enter}" and then rebooted.

Modifying the file was not fun and games, definitely not rocket science though, just confusing to know if you're editing the correct value with the correct intended value. But if someone needs help to modify this, well, it's our duty as a community to help each other.

I used Ohmster's 'nvs_map.bin' back then, and he's using the XT912 while I'm using the XT910. So no issues there. I only used the 'nvs_map.bin' file, not any '/pds' folder. Not sure if it's totally necessary. Though, looking through my '/pds' folder, all the folders inside, except 'security' (and 'wifi' of course), are empty.

Now, do yourselves a favour and keep a copy of the 'nvs_map.bin' file that has the correct MAC address for future use - I was forced to go back to stock with RSD Lite after M10 almost screwed-up my phone and boy, did this copy come in handy.

Just a question, do we need to back up the 'webtop' partition when making backups?

Wasting my time waiting to backup you know...

Generated on a RAZR Maxx (XT910) using XDA's free mobile app.
[Motorola Droid RAZR] brkahughes:
The 'webtop' partition is only used by the stock jellybean ROM, and does not need to be backed up or restored through SafeStrap unless you are preserving the stock install for future use. No AOSP/AOKP third party ROM I'm familiar with uses it in any way... It can always be restored by RSDlite along with your stock install.

Speaking of which, [MENTION=4245858]Ohmster[/MENTION] and [MENTION=2774395]my2cents[/MENTION], the /pds folder is not/can not be backed up by SafeStrap, so don't bother looking. It is also not recreated by RSDlite or Matt's Utility because it's specific to each phone. It's one of the fixed factory partitions that is not intended to be 'portable' between phones, but is tucked in nvram (read 'internal SD') during the manufacturing process and contains the calibration and personalization data for the particular piece of hardware in your hand. Everything from MAC data to the color temperature correction of your individual camera chip are there, written before it leaves the factory. As such, I agree with [MENTION=3313632]ChungHung.Chen[/MENTION] (is it Mr. ChungHung?) that restoring 'less is more', I would only replace the missing parts of /pds that I actually need.

Since my2cents appears to have normal signal performance on his stock ROM, if I'm remembering correctly, I would guess that his APN/orange icon issues cannot be linked to a missing /pds folder that wouldn't exist for either ROM.

- Brian

"... no matter where you go, there you are.". -Buckaroo Banzai

AIO XT912 Stock Utility:

Reflash/Root/SafeStrap​
[Motorola Droid RAZR] ktimque:
I asked you to keep me updated if you wanted something to change, because I couldn't because I don't have the device anymore. Instead of typing one of your 10-page essays I have to comb through, if you can give me a concise way to update the guide I will do so.
[Motorola Droid RAZR] Ohmster:
Mr. Chen, that is superb! Since I really didn't even know the existence of this file until almost a month ago, I know very little about what it is for, aside from the WiFi MAC, which we discovered out of desperate need. I really just wanted "to mine" your vast experience and skill to determine what is in these files and how important they are. [MENTION=1807728]brkahughes[/MENTION] also gave some interesting and very sensible information about this being a manufacturer implant deep inside of the phone's internal memory. I know of two kinds of internal memory. One is "the other half" of the 16Gb internal sdcard that we never see. And of course, there is electronic RAM chips, of which we have very little. I think ARM processors really don't need that much RAM, a very good comparison for computer types can be found at the University of Wisconsin, Processors Guide 2012. It makes sense that this important to the individual device folder would be included at time of manufacturing.

Personal information tucked inside? I cannot imagine such, these are device hardware parameters, AFAIK. Why and how would Motorola insert personal information into a hidden folder deep within the internal memory for a device that has not even been sold, much less activated and put into service? I am not sure where DRM is stored, although it does exsist. Comcast uses Silverlight to show content on web browsers so I tried to view something in my Dolphin browser. All seemed well but before the show loaded, I got the message that "Xfinity TV can only be viewed with the Xfinity TV app". They must build the DRM into the app itself. We do have a /pds/wmdrm/ folder, but mine, like most, is empty.

Want to hear something amazing? I did a Google Search for where are drm files stored in an xt912 phone. The 10th URL supplied was Top Threads in Droid RAZR Android Development by Thread and guess what came up? This Page! This page and it's contents did not even exist hours ago, yet Google has it indexed and available right now, starting with Casper's post #6155. Amazing!

Mr. Chen, I am SO pleased at what you were able to come up with on such short notice. If you are have anymore info about the /pds folder and it's contents when you get home, please tell us so that we can hash out this very important topic and be done with it. Thank you Mr. Chen.

...lunch is still open for some future appointment! :laugh:
[Motorola Droid RAZR] welder73:
Let me join this discussion...

I have that "pds" folder and all the folders inside but they are all empty except "bbattd" and "security".

I do have "wifical.sh" and "wificalcheck.sh" and they are located in the system/bin but I don't have "nvs_map.bin" and therefore i can't calibrate my wifi...

But there is no need for that because my wifi is working ok,always did,in every KK rom :)

Sent from my Razr XT910
[Motorola Droid RAZR] ChungHung.Chen:
"webtop" is a hidden partition (~1.3GB) which can be used as ROM slot. Boot Menu Manager use it for system 2 ( AKA slot-1 in SafeStrap ) and it's fast as stock partition. But BMM has discontinued. :crying:

I live in Taiwan and Chen is my last name, so Mr. Chen is ok. :D

Dear ktimque,

Thanks for you still help us to modify 1st page and thread title. Could you help to put a notification in 1st page, to remind new comer to backup /pds partition? In case of accidentally wipe /pds. Thank you again.

Hi,

After check my XT910, I only copied /pds/camera/module1/cameracal.bin for camera calibration data which should be same in all XT910 ( I think it should be ). Like I said before, I can live without other files because I do not use apps which require them. Any new information or experiences sharing are welcome. Community is knowledge-base which created by many sharing...
[Motorola Droid RAZR] Ohmster:
Very useful information and very much appreciated. Thank you. Oh I am so glad that I didn't offend you by taking the liberty of addressing you as "Mr. Chen". I thought that was your given name, not your surname. It has been my lifelong experience with Asian men that most like to be addressed as "Mr. (given name)". When I moved to Florida in 1985, my first job as a Florida electronic technician was with a senior tech named Thong Duc Nguyen. He always liked to be addressed as "Mr. Thong", even though it was not his surname or "family name". He would go so far as to call other people the same such as "Mr. Paul". I have had similar experience with other Asian men, other than punks or gang members. :laugh:

So "Mr. Chen" is really a name given and used as a respectful title. And you, Mr. Chen, have certainly earned your respect as a valuable and contributing member of the Razr community. Lunch may be just a dream, but the dream lives on! :D

Quite right. That bit of information was never published and I was not even aware of it until last month when I lost my LTE and had to get a new phone. Asking stargo for any "pre modification advice", the only thing he told me was to specifically backup and hold on to that /pds folder. I still had my old XT912 which was totally functional, just no LTE or 4G. I looked everywhere in that phone before wiping and returning it and could find no trace of the /pds folder. As what happens to many others, I lost my own /pds directory. :(

Oh that is such a terrific attitude, Mr. Chen. To share knowledge and experience in this forum is paramount to it's very existence and livelihood. I cherish all of these "Nuggets of experience" anytime a senior or any member posts them and keep them in my library of XT912 tips and tweaks. I think you are right. Many of my own /pds folders are empty as well. It is probably not necessary to replace the entire /pds tree for a phone that is missing one. But the nvs_map.bin file is pretty important and should at the very least be restored to /pds/wifi/nvs_map.bin. What all folders in /pds are actually used and contain files?

camera

public (Battery calibration files)

security, 6 binary files present. Not sure what they are for at this time.

whisper (Install info and some sort of "whisper" folder and another bin file)

wifi (The WiFi MAC address bin file)

That's it. Those are all of the /pds folders that contain any files on my recent replacement XT912 device. I did create a list of all /pds folder, files, and permissions in the event anyone needs it to check permissions after restoring the folder from a Windows environment. pds.txt text file attached for those that want/need it.

Thank you very much for your help and experience, Mr. Chen. As always, it has been a great pleasure for me. :cowboy:

P.S.

I ran out of "Thanks" tokens for the day, I am rather generous with them but I will get you one for your participation when my supply of 8 is replenished tomorrow. ;)
[Motorola Droid RAZR] JakeDHS07:
Sorry been distracted with life lately. Did notice something though. Did anyone else have call history being blank? Like even when I miss a call or someone calls me so I can store their number. When I go back to get it the call history is blank. Never saw this before and dunno what's going on. Anyone else? Any fixes?
[Motorola Droid RAZR] rgerrans:
Thanks for the status report, since I've also been seeing the slow wakeups again in recent builds. I'm seeing similar issues when in a call and go to hang up and can't get the phone to wake up (on 10/05 now), so will update to 10/06 to see if it fixes that too.

I'm still running into slow wakeups just turning on the screen randomly with all the recent builds. Going back to cache/dalvik wipes when it happens. It seems like it might be related to when I'm switching from wifi to cell / getting on bluetooth in my car. Going to keep observing but thought if others were having similar issues it would be good to see if we notice any patterns.
[Motorola Droid RAZR] ChungHung.Chen:
Have anyone get superuser settings FC ?

XT910 / CM11-20141004 / SuperSU-2.0.2

I've got FC when I go settings->superuser->settings(by 3 dot menu).

Entering SuperSU settings from app drawer is ok, looks like it's CM issue.

Could anyone help to confirm it? Thanks.
[Motorola Droid RAZR] Ohmster:
No, no issues with Superuser from Settings menu. But, it was recommended by many Senior Members here to install Chainfire SuperSU so I did and it works fine. SuperSU had to gain root rights from the built in superuser anyway. I do not think that 10/04 is a good build, Mr. Chen. 10/02 was really good, everything worked, no problems at all. I then updated to 10/03 and hated it. Screen lag to wake up for incoming calls and text. This "screen-lag wake" issue is pretty serious. You cannot answer the phone because it takes too long to wake up if you can wake it at all and you cannot hang up for the same reason. Incoming text messages also were blocking the screen from lighting. 10/03 was not unusable, but quite unsettling and annoying. [MENTION=2774395]my2cents[/MENTION] had issues with 10/05. I was ready to pull the plug and restore 10/02 but I took a chance on OTA 10/06 and am quite pleased so far. Everything works, no more screen lag to wake up, at all. Just checked Settings/Superuser, no issues. I have not had 10/06 installed overnight yet so I cannot give it a 100% OK yet, but so far, all good. Tomorrow will tell when it comes off overnight charge.

[MENTION=2895830]rgerrans[/MENTION] is having serious issues on 10/05 with screen wake-up lag, I just told him about 06 and he is going to try it. It appears to me that anything from 10/03-10/05 are not good builds. See if 10/06 works for you, or, if you have the backup, reload 10/02.
[Motorola Droid RAZR] rgerrans:
Verizon Apn changes coming to the next build http://review.cyanogenmod.org/#/c/73293/ might help [MENTION=2774395]my2cents[/MENTION] issue.
[Motorola Droid RAZR] Dwillian:
I just did the OTA update to the 10/6 nightly and now all my icon labels have disappeared! Anyone else having this problem, or know how to turn icon labels back on?
[Motorola Droid RAZR] rgerrans:
Though reading the linked discussion looks like this only fixes mms not the data issue the original poster reported.
[Motorola Droid RAZR] my2cents:
So, I went back to JB 4.1.2 after installing your /pds files and fixing my MAC address. After getting back to JB, my MAC address was back to the generic address. As others have said, the /pds file does not get recreated when you flash back with RSD. I went for a day and signal was green or dark yellow all day. This evening I rooted, and flashed CM11 10/5 again. In the hour that I have been on CM I have had red signal for about 50 minutes of that time. I am in the process of putting my wifes /pds file on my phone with your wifi.xml file, so that we dont have the same MAC address at home. I have no idea why my signal is red even though I have service... I'm going to flash 9/21 and do a factory reset and see if it really is the 10/5 rom.
[Motorola Droid RAZR] farangcm:
My XT910 is on CM11-20141005 and I also get Settings FC when I click "Settings" from the 3 dot menu in Settings\SuperUser.

Allen
[Motorola Droid RAZR] Ohmster:
Oh my, I just got done telling everyone how good 10/06 is and now, ...this. :p

Okay, one of two things pop into my head. The icon labels are shut off, or, the rom is bad for

your phone

, revert to backup.

Yes, when I say "your phone" it makes you wonder what the heck am I talking about. My phone is rocketing in performance like I have never seen before. I learned a LOT in the past few months. Go clean, ...AND. That was the big, missing piece of the puzzle, the "AND". Not for the scope of this discussion, but if pressed for performance details, I will and have already posted the details. Moving right along...

To hide or unhide your icon labels, press and hold the desktop until the Trebuchet menu appears. Swipe it up to top of screen to see the entire picture. There is a setting: Icon labels - SHOW/HIDE. Make sure you have selected "SHOW". Toggle this setting, tap home to see results, get the menu back up, and toggle it back. Screenshots supplied showing settings and their effect on desktop icons.

If this does not work:

Bad rom for you, revert to a known good backup to make sure. Do this first. If need be, I can give good "housekeeping tips" for cm11 and how to make it perform. I am no expert on this, but I paid a lot of attention to and asked questions of some very much Senior Members to asselble this knowledge. Most of which everybody knows anyway. But, for whatever reason, they do not do it. "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" kind of thing.

Check screenshots, give it a shot, and let us know what happens, Dwillian. :D
[Motorola Droid RAZR] my2cents:
I sure hope so! I have no idea what my problem is...well I have lots of problems, but this one has me stumped. I'm out of thanks, but one is coming your way soon!
[Motorola Droid RAZR] Ohmster:
For what it's worth, my own experience and the members with problems all were using cm11 nightly builds 10/03-10/05. Build 10/02, perfect on my phone. Build 10/06, again perfect so far. Build 10/03, black screen lag returns. Others using 10/04 and 10/05,

problems

.

The /pds folder, once gone, really is, ...gone. I have not done it but putting another /pds folder tree on your phone and running wifical.sh in terminal as root, (su) should restore the WiFi MAC in the bin file of the pds folder tree. There is a way to hex edit the file to what you want the WiFi MAC to be. Probably doesn't matter though. The device can run without this folder. Some, like Mr. Chen, only put back a part or parts of the /pds folder tree like the wifi folder.

Get off that rom, 2¢, it is known to have issues. Aside from the go totally clean and keep it that way, like I mentioned in the previous post is all I can give. It is a big chore, will yield positive results, but will it fix your connectivity issues? I don't know, bro. It would not hurt, but make no mistake about this, it is a BIG JOB. Wish I could be more helpful right now but that is all I have, so far. :confused:

I will stick with you and when I learn more, I for sure will share it with you. ;)
[Motorola Droid RAZR] my2cents:
Thanks Ohmster. That is exactly what I did. I went all the way back to JB to see if it was a radio issue. It's not. I wiped everything and started CLEAN. I'm flashing back to 9/21 because I know for sure that one worked for me. I'll report back. :fingers-crossed:

EDIT: Same issue with 9/21. I have no idea what I did!
[Motorola Droid RAZR] Ohmster:
Huh? Whadayamean, same issue, don't know what you done? Get basic here for a minute. Does your phone have good data and voice? Text okay? What kind of speed you got? I have 4G and the Ookla speed test gives me 20+ Mbps down, 6-8 Mbps up. Did you EVER have good data, text, voice on that phone w/out orange icons all the time? When? What were you running at the time?

I have to understand your history to see where you have been and where you are going in order to help sort this out. Eventually, soon, or, ...never? :confused:

What happened in Jellybean? Improvements? Much better? All the way better, the same, or worse?

Like I said, I will stick it out as far as I can go and we may be able to draw on others if need be. What is going on and when/if did the phone ever run good and how good did it run? :D
[Motorola Droid RAZR] my2cents:
While on JB today everything was good. Voice, text, MMS, 4G, everything. Once I flash CM11 the signal goes red in the battery section, but phone phone shows that I have 4G with good service with white bars. I can't call, text, or send MMS. When I connect to Wifi I can check email and stuff. If you go to battery and then click click on the graph with the time, do you have any red where it says signal?

EDIT: When I reboot my phone, it takes a while for the APNs to show up. When i try to call *228 I get "Mobile network not available."

EDIT2: See the photo. Good service, but no service...

EDIT3: What PA Gapps is everyone using? Maybe the 09/01 micro version that I have been using for the last few weeks is causing my problems?
[Motorola Droid RAZR] ChungHung.Chen:
Looks like it may be fixed in next nightly build.

Settings: Fix NPE in Superuser settings.
[Motorola Droid RAZR] farangcm:
Not fixed in 20141007 Nightly--just now available. :(

Take that back...I missed something. Back in 5... Sorry for the misinformation. It is fixed in the 20141007 Nightly!
[Motorola Droid RAZR] SimpTheChimp:
Any one tried the 11/07 release? I know that 11/06 is 'good' (as reported here) but wondering about 11/07?

I'm going to rebuild so I think I will try 11/07, but if someone else has tried it before I get started please let us know if it is as good as 11/06.

-Tom
[Motorola Droid RAZR] Mr-Glass:
You might change your mind if you look here... http://review.cyanogenmod.org/#/c/53559/
[Motorola Droid RAZR] JakeDHS07:
As I have been saying for months we need a new maintainer/s. CM 11 will work no problem on spyder. Someone please add and enable nightlies.

DROID RAZR MAXX CM 11 JBX Kernel
[Motorola Droid RAZR] 1droidmod:
So CM is making decisions not maintainers?

XT912 RaZR SpYdEr CDMA

hit ThAnKs if I was helpful!!!
[Motorola Droid RAZR] Mr-Glass:
That is certainly how I read it... I have to take off my hat for Hash and Dhacker pushing so hard for it..... looks to me like the Veto - came from as High in Cyanogen Mod as it can.. at least that is my take..

edit.. should be Cyanogen Inc.