[Eee Pad Transformer Android Development] timduru:
Additional info & links

Youtube

Latest youtube will work ok with res < 720p.

720p might work if autoselected directly, but will most likely fail / stutter.

Using an older version of Youtube like 5.0.21 fixes these issues.

Flash & HTML5 Video

Flash is not supported by default on KitKat, you can still use it with Dolphin Dolphin Browser:

Install Dolphin Browser, install or activate Dolphin JetPack in settings, install the latest flash plugin.

HTML5 video will only play full screen in the default browser & other browsers using the default webview.

If Chrome crashes on playing the video, try the beta or another older version(29.x)

Skype Calling

Version 5.x broke calling support.

If you need calls, you have to use an older version like 4.9.0.45564

http://skype.en.uptodown.com/android/old

Plant vs Zombies - Black Screen

Game issue seems to be related to different roms / devices with 1280x800 resolution.

Workaround to avoid the black screen after launch:

- install NOMone Resolution changer

- change resolution to 1280x768 160 dpi

- click apply

- launch game

After playing, restore resolution .

Wallpaper Modes

:

Different Wallpaper modes have been added in Settings => Display

** Normal (regular android mode)

** Disable System Wallpaper rendering (set as default)

** Disable Wallpaper service

2nd setting will prevent the wallpaper being rendered by the system (system rendering is not good with the asus graphic hal) and also freeing resources

That's the recommended setting you want to use if you are using a launcher that has internal wallpaper rendering

You will see a black wallpaper if you're not using a launcher that can do internal rendering

If wallpaper is important and that you want to keep your current launcher, then switch back to the 1st setting

same if you want wallpaper to display on the lock screen.

3rd setting disables wallpaper completely, depending on your launcher it might be better.

Global Key Override/Shorcut Mecanism

Available in Settings => Language & Input => Add Key Override Actions

or in Dock Settings

This will allow you not only to redefine function keys assignment, and other special keys actions,

but you'll also be able to assign global macro actions / app launch to any key + Meta key combination (shift Left or Right , ctrl..)

You can also add multiple actions to one key combination, simply click again on the "+" button for the same key combination.

For example if you want to assign to one key combination a list of action to run before going to bed for example, like: turn wifi off, bluetooth off, mute sound, and turn screen off, you can do that :)

Note that starting multiple applications with one key is kinda a miss and hit for the moment due to some mecanism in android that seems to prevent applications to start too close to each others.

Wifi channels

:

Choose which channels are available based on your country in Settings => Wifi => Advanced => Change wifi regulatory domain

Google search

:

If the version you're using is crashing when you open Google Now,

go to Settings => Language & Input => Voice Search

then uncheck Hotword Detection.

CIFS & 3rd party Mount Apps

:

The Rom/Kernel have native support for them as long as you mount it outside or /storage/ and /mnt/shell/emulated/

GPS

:

if it is taking a long time to get a lock or no lock, follow this:

Install the latest K.A.T app

Then follow precisely this procedure:

1) Location Settings

- Go to Settings => Location => turn OFF (top right switch)

- Turn it back ON

- Make sure you agree to let google access the location.

- Make sure the current selected mode is High accuracy

2) Launch the new K.A.T app

- make sure you grant it root access

- make sure you have internet access

- go to the install menu, Check the "Install GPS quicker fix + Assistance

- Click the Install button

- Make sure it says "Install Finished"

3) Reboot

4) Wait that it has finished booting and launching all the stuff you have starting at boot

5) Start your GPS app

outside with a clear sky line

, to speed things up stay in range of the wifi / internet connection.

Do not let the gps app loose focus

when it is trying to get a fix.

Do not let your tablet sleep

/ turn off the screen either.

Doing that here, the first time and with a cold gps start, and even staying in my house,

I get a 6 sat fix within 30 seconds and 11 sat fix in 1min 15seconds.

From there subsequent fixes takes about 3 seconds to grab 7 sats and about 10 seconds to reach the 10-11 sat fix

(you still want to let it sit outside for a bit after the 1st fix, so that the ephemeris data gets consolidated and updated to help faster fix later on)

Hardware keyboard layouts

More languages have been added in the default asusec keyboard

Set the keyboard layout through Settings => Language & Input => asusec => setup keyboard layouts

These also allow live switching without reboot with ctrl + space

Window Animation Scale & Immersive mode

:

If you want to be able to drop down from the top to display the status bar while in immersive mode,

the Window Animation Scale must be different than zero.

ART

:

ART is not supported for the moment, if ever you tried it, to go back to a working state you can either:

- remove the file /data/property/persist.sys.dalvik.vm.lib + clean cache & dalvik-cache & reboot in your recovery

- or do a full wipe

Storage (fstrim) and Database optimization

:

Fstrim is native in 4.3 and will happen in the background if your tablet is idle / sleeping and that your battery is > 70%

There is also a script to run it manually in the rom: /etc/kat/optimizestorage

To optimize the Database: /etc/kat/optimizedb

To run both, open a terminal and run:

su

/etc/kat/optimize

Be warned that the optimize storage can take from a few minutes to hours.

But the speed / lag will be greatly improved afterward :)

Slow downs & Battery drain after a full wipe ?

:

Things to keep in mind after flashing with a full wipe:

- Media scanner will need to scan everything again, it can take from a few minutes to hours or days if you have a lot of medias or medias that it doesn't like.

During that process it'll use a lot of cpu and disk, and so can make things lag a bit and drain the battery until it's done.

You can use the Media Scanner filters to speed things up and make it scan only parts that are really containing your medias

- After a wipe, it wipes your battery stats, if you don't flash while you are with a 100% full battery, the battery stats will be inaccurate for a while until it learns again your battery capacity.

The battery can appear to drain faster because it doesn't know where your 100% is.

(see here for tips on how to speed up the learning process)

- Check that you don't have a rogue process eating cpu in the background. (run the top command)

- Check that you don't have a process keeping your tablet awake

Disabling ext4 journaling :

:

This procedure will increase speed and responsiveness of the internal memory by disabling journaling

Disabling journaling will give a big speed/responsiveness increase especially on /data where writing occurs

but the risk of corruption in case of crashes, reboots, running out of battery... is also higher.

Make sure you have a backup handy and you understand what you are doing !

If you prefer to play it safe you can use the 2nd disabling zip, which will only disable on /system and /cache which don't contain user data

Corruption is unlikely to occur on /system as it's read only, and /cache is just volatile non user data, so you can simply just format it from recovery if ever something wrong happens.

To disable journaling on /system /cache /data download: dis_journaling.zip

To disable journaling only on /system and /cache : dis_journaling_system_cache_only.zip

To enable journaling back download: ena_journaling.zip

0) Put the zip on your microsd card

1) Boot into recovery

2) unmount everything but the microsd card (that means /system, /cache /data ... )

(the script will also try to unmount these, but better be safe in case the script doesn't succeeds)

3) flash zip

4) reboot

Note: Disabling journaling should only take a few seconds unless your filesystem is already dirty (fsck will take place before and after the journaling change)

Enabling journaling can take longer, especially on /data (mmcblk0p7)

Just be patient.

To disable journaling you will need to reflash the zip after you format /cache /data or /system (that means after installing the rom or after wiping cache if you do that after installing the rom)

Storage inversion(inverts microSD and internal storage) :

:

This procedure will allow you to use your MicroSD as the internal /data partition (which means /data, /sdcard, /data/media ...)

So you can now have whatever extra space for "Android internal storage" you like (ie what your physical microSD size is)

And your old internal storage will be used as /storage/sdcard1/

Not that I care much about the extra space myself, but the good thing is that if you use a good MicroSD, things will also be much faster,

and for example it doesn't lag anymore when installing apps and such.

Make sure you understand what it means and what you are doing.

And backup everything first of course !

As reference:

Physical Internal partition is /dev/block/mmcblk0p7

Physical MicroSD partition is /dev/block/mmcblk1p1

These won't change, only the mount points are changing.

The commands can be typed directly from twrp command line thingie, or you can run them through adb

(just add adb shell in front of the command in that case)

One thing to note is that the standard recoveries don't know at all that your mount points are swapped, so it will still show them to you the "old non swapped way"

It won't know how to make a factory reset while retaining your data for example.

Sidneyk has made a specific TWRP version that will support inverted storage, make sure to use that one

after

you've inverted the storage if you want to wipe from recovery

(if you use it for this procedure, then adjust the commands accordingly)

The commands below are for the non inverted recovery.

1) Boot into TWRP (I use v2.3.2.3, it might differ if using another version)

2) WIPE MicroSD content (that means it will be empty afterwards)

unmount your microsd

/sbin/make_ext4fs /dev/block/mmcblk1p1

If you still need to transfer your data from the internal storage you can go to step 4) then come back later to do step 3) only

3) If you have transferred your data from your internal storage, you can format it too:

unmount /data and /sdcard

/sbin/make_ext4fs /dev/block/mmcblk0p7

remount /data

then

4)

/sbin/chmod -R 777 /data

5) Flash the KatKernel (JB4.4) for the rom marked with _invertstorage

6) Reboot.

Unless you transferred your old /data into your physical new microsd partition, it'll be like if you did a factory reset,

so you will just need to go through the setup again.

And of course, From now on your microsd must be inserted before booting up the system, and NEVER remove your microsd card while the system is running.

Enjoy the extra space & speed :)