yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[MeMO Pad 7 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Mis012:
About the UEFI acces removal I said maybe. Mayba not. But who knows these days?

And about the gps, it dit it on kitkat and someone said it does this on lollipop too. I would recommend booting in windows and trying then, if it will not work then it will never. But GPS apps for windows? Noooo, who would mess up with that? The next step would be Android-x86.

As for the UEFI, here comes the noob-unfriendly variant:

0. root the tablet (may not be needed, I haven't tried)

1. download the efibootmgr compiled for android http://xdaforums.com/showpost.php?p=61108700&postcount=2083

2. place the file from inside the zip somewhere

3. using android termianl app, cd in folder with efibootmgr

4. with help of this file http://linux.dell.com/files/efibootmgr/efibootmgr-0.5.4/efibootmgr.txt set next boot to UEFI setup utility. You will most likely need root.

5. Power off the tablet and power it on again

6. You should be in UEFI setup utility. Now you may be able to browse the menus.

7. You will most likely still need a powered usb hub to connect keyboard and do anything.

I hope I will not need a powered usb hub, I do not have one.
[MeMO Pad 7 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] tuxic001:
Hi Mis012,

UEFI:

Thanks for the deeply-hack-mode-variant! ;)

But I will wait with my experiments until it is clear whether we will still have full access to our beloved ME176CX :) or not.

Here is a little bit of knowledge, which I can give back:

I had asked on xda-developers whether and how it is possible to mount the tablet as storage device.

Now I found a way to do so on Linux.

You need to install on Linux (this is Gentoo notation...other distros may

have similiar nameings)

dev-lang/go-1.4.2

dev-libs/go-usb-9999

dev-libs/go-fuse-0_p20150422

media-libs/libmtp-1.1.8

On the tablet switch off PTP and switch on MTP.

Connect the device with you Gentoo box and start (as root)

go-mtpfs <mountpunt>

(YES! No device name is required here).

After that the mountpoint contains two directories:

drwxr-xr-x 0 root root 0 1970-01-01 01:00 Internal storage

drwxr-xr-x 0 root root 0 1970-01-01 01:00 SD card

which which is, is obvious.

It is ok, that the command "hangs" ... works as designed.

It stops hanging after the umnount (see below).

Now you can add files into these directories as root.

To umount use (again as root)

umount <mntpoint>

This way there is no need of WiFi transfers or fiddling with this

tiny memory chips. :)

Best regards,

tuxic
[MeMO Pad 7 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] lambdadroid:
On my Arch Linux system with Gnome/Cinnamon and on Linux Mint/Ubuntu (with a few hacks) it is mounting the device automatically without root or any command, I simply connect it to USB and the device is showing up in the file explorer.
[MeMO Pad 7 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] tuxic001:
Yes, there are distros out there, which has setup the udev-rules and mtp-mimic already.

Gentoo leaves all that as a task (and exercise) for the user.

Unfortunately I received no reply to my question how to access the ME176CX via usb storage.

So I found it myself... :)

Now I know, how it works :)

By the way: Is there any way to disable this [CENSORED] auto completion and word guessing "feature"

of the build-in keyboard. I disabled all suspicous settings under "Language and Input" -- but it

does not help.

"cat /proc/cpuinfo" will instantly be corrected to "cat /proc/Clinton"

which does not work in this case ;)

For programming and system peeking purposes this is a total NO GO!

Help me please with the settings...I am over 30 ! ;)

Best regards,

tuxic
[MeMO Pad 7 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] lambdadroid:
Right, had to edit the udev rules on Ubuntu to make it work.

Either install a different keyboard from the app store or go into the Settings -> Language & input -> ASUS Keyboard -> Advanced settings -> Auto-correction (probably set to high currently) -> Set to off.

You may want to disable a few other settings there too.
[MeMO Pad 7 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] tuxic001:
Hi cyandro,

thanks for your reply! :)

as said, I switch that off already. Doesn't help.

I will look for another keyboard.

Best regards,

tuxic
[MeMO Pad 7 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] lambdadroid:
Weird, it works fine for me. When I turn it off it is still showing suggestions but it doesn't auto correct what I enter anymore.
[MeMO Pad 7 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] tuxic001:
Now I have installed a couple of keyboards for different occasions:

1.) I removed all keyboards which seems only be running, when only (what the [CENSORED] is THAT!]

2.) I dont installed keyboards, which want to access camera or gps (again...)

3.) Some nice keyboards dont have a pipe "|" symbol. Unix/Linux wiithout | is like WIndows without a mouse:

Possible, but...

4.) From the rest I choose a few. Those, with an own settings screen work.

Next problem:

I want to access my phone with adb.

As previously mentioned I need to setup the udev/device/usb thingy myself. I googled have the world

and found a rule for udev:

SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTR{idVendor}=="0b05", MODE="0664", GROUP="plugdev"

SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTR{idVendor}=="0b05", ATTR{idProduct}=="7772", MODE="0660",

GROUP="plugdev", SYMLINK+="android%n"

But this thing does not work. Adb does not find any device (but also does not report any error).

Do I need to kick my Memo pad into some special mode (beside enabling debug mode in devel options)?

And what udev rules do work here?

Thank you very much in advance for any debubmode ! :)

Best regards.

tuxic
[MeMO Pad 7 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] lambdadroid:
You can figure out if your udev rules or something else is causing the problem quite easily: run adb as root and if it shows the device (but not without root) then just your rules are wrong. On the device you should only need to enable the Developer Mode and then USB Debugging (and make sure to confirm when your PC shows up on the device).

I used a rule in udev like this (also make sure to reload the udev rules or restart your PC after you've changed them):

# ASUS
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTR{idVendor}=="0b05", MODE="0666", GROUP="plugdev"

See https://developer.android.com/tools/device.html#setting-up for more information (start with the second point, this guide is actually about app deployment but everything else is the same)
[MeMO Pad 7 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] tuxic001:
Hi cyandro,

Thanks for your reply ! :)

Your rule says 'MODE="0666"' which is rw-rw-rw- for the device, which means world can read/write the device...hmmmm...

The fact, that I am paranoid, does not necessarily mean, that I am wrong... ;)

To refresh udev rules normally nothing needs to be done than editing the rules, because udev keeps track of that automagically.

To be sure simply do a "/etc/init.d/udev restart" or similiar (depends on the distro)...no need to change the car, when the fuel is empty ;)

In the meanwhile I found the problem: It seems that the USB cable did not work as expected. I changed that an now adb is working.

But fastboot does not...

I kicked my Memo Pad into droidboot (Power+Vol Down) but fastboot (cmd on my Linux box, not the line in the droidboot screen) does not list the device.

I am using the same cable as with adb ;).

Is this a normal "feature" ... or is it me again, not seeing the obvious? ;)

PS: adb lists a command which mounts /system read/write...is THAT true?

If YES: In my opinion this would be a very "lean" and not-so-dangerous way

for rooting: Just compile sudo on your PC (the ASUS Memo Pad is x64 compatible as

far as I know), add sudo into $PATH somewhere, edit /etc/sudoers, add a Terminal App...

and thats it! Or I am too young/too old...I own my MemoPad since fours days... ;)

Best regards,

tuxic
[MeMO Pad 7 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] lambdadroid:
I don't know - I took this from the Android documentation link I posted above and it works fine.

I'm using the cable that came with the tablet from ASUS and it works fine with my udev rules. Try booting into the bootloader with `adb reboot bootloader` and then execute the fastboot commands.

I doubt that will work, you won't be able to write to /system directly without having rooted the device first. Also keep in mind installing sudo is not comparable to installing SuperSU. It will manage root access per-app for you. By just installing sudo you won't be able to use any app requiring root. Installing root using the temp recovery is not really hard and actually pretty safe. I did it several times already and it worked fine everytime.
[MeMO Pad 7 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Mis012:
Your way seems pretty complicated, but on android, rooting is done by getting su binary in system/bin

On kitkat, RootZenfone app used some bug in the code to do it, but it doesn't work on lollipop.

However, you can go to http://xdaforums.com/android/development/intel-android-devices-root-temp-cwm-t2975096 , download the public trial version, and use trigger4 to boot in cwm recovery. It includes adb and fastboot too. I do not know if this works on linux, you may have to use Linux version here http://xdaforums.com/android/development/intel-android-devices-root-temp-cwm-t2975096 . Within the recovery (I recommend you cwm for this task), go to install zip and flash this: https://www.androidfilehost.com/?fid=95916177934531508 the instal SuperSU app from google play. It may want to update the su binary, just let it do so. Then, this app will notice you whenever other app want to use root rights (you can allow apps to use root rights whenever they want, and force another apps ask first). Then, you can eventualy install some terminal app from playstore.
[MeMO Pad 7 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] tuxic001:
Hi cyandro,

I used another cable (not the "Seventh of Nine" ... more likely the "onehundredandseventh of eighthundredandnineth" of all USB cables here ;)...my fault, I know...

By the way: https://www.clockworkmod.com/ seems to be down ... cannot reach it. Is that normal? Anything know?

Best regards,

tuxic
[MeMO Pad 7 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] lambdadroid:
I have only one so I didn't had to think about which one to use. :P

It's down for me too, no idea what's up with it, it was working a few weeks ago. You don't need to go on it though because there is no official version for the ME176C(X), just an unofficial one.

Basically [MENTION=6013061]Mis012[/MENTION] explained it already, http://xdaforums.com/android/development/intel-android-devices-root-temp-cwm-t2975096 works fine for the ME176C(X) on Lollipop using trigger 4. It works only on Windows, but a Linux version is provided here: http://xdaforums.com/android/development/linux-version-twrp-2-8-6-0-tethered-t3123075 (same here use trigger 4).

Basically if you use the Linux version, download and unpack it, rename cwm_recovery.zip to recovery.zip and run `./trigger 4` when you're in the bootloader with your device. Keep in mind the fastboot commands need to work for this. You may want to edit the script to use the adb/fastboot binaries you installed yourself before, I didn't want to execute the binaries provided by someone else personally.

When you've done all this you should be in the CWM recovery. Make sure you've already downloaded the SuperSU update from the official site at http://download.chainfire.eu/supersu and copied it to your sdcard. Then you can just go into Install zip, select it and install it on your device, that's it! If it asks you to fix root or something while rebooting you can also just say "no", root will still work.
[MeMO Pad 7 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] tuxic001:
Unfortunately all links to the binaries listed here http://xdaforums.com/android/development/linux-version-twrp-2-8-6-0-tethered-t3123075 result in a 404 NOT FOUND error.

Any hope ?

Any alternative links ?

Best regards,

tuxic
[MeMO Pad 7 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] lambdadroid:
You need to download it from https://www.androidfilehost.com/?fid=23991606952612510
[MeMO Pad 7 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] tuxic001:
Hi cyandro,

GREAT! Download is running... :)

Question in between:

According backups:

What is the most reliable way to backup as much as possible (including the whole system) BEFORE I root the device in case something fails -- which

can be restore even the tablet does not work fully?

Same question as above but after Rooting?

Best regars,

tuxic
[MeMO Pad 7 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] lambdadroid:
You can theoretically backup and restore almost everything with the temp CWM recovery by selecting that instead of Install zip, however ASUS provides the clean lollipop system for downloading so if something goes wrong you can always reset your system by just installing that (even though root will be obviously gone again after that).
[MeMO Pad 7 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] tuxic001:
Hi cyandro,

This is the contents of the ZIP:

-rwxr-xr-x 1 user users 4017098 2015-07-19 14:27 SuperSU246.zip

-rwxr-xr-x 1 user users 3560544 2015-07-19 14:27 cwm_recovery.zip

-rw-rw-r-- 1 user users 89 2015-07-19 14:27 md5sum

-rwxr-x--x 1 user users 529469 2015-07-19 14:27 fastboot

-rwxr-xr-x 1 user users 410105 2015-07-19 14:27 recovery.launcher

-rwxr-xr-x 1 user users 183198 2015-07-19 14:27 recovery.trigger.new

-rwxr-xr-x 1 user users 174902 2015-07-19 14:27 recovery.trigger.original

-rw-rw-r-- 1 user users 12189128 2015-07-19 14:27 twrp_3830_recovery.zip

-rw-rw-r-- 1 user users 11860217 2015-07-19 14:27 twrp_i700_recovery.zip

-rwxr-xr-x 1 user users 3560544 2015-07-19 14:37 recovery.zip

-rwxr-x--x 1 user users 1233 2015-07-19 14:42 trigger.org <<< CREATED BY MYSELF>>>

-rwxr-x--x 1 user users 1233 2015-07-19 14:44 trigger~

-rwxr-x--x 1 usr users 1193 2015-07-19 14:44 trigger

Did the following:

1) copied SuperSu.zip (update) to the SDcard.

2) checked adb / fastboot (self compiled) to recognize the device: OK

3) modified "trigger" to use my own adb / fastboot from a fresh install/compilation of Android SDK this morning.

Other modification was to take recovery.zip and recovery_launcher from the current directory instead of using /tmp on my Linux Box.

3) adb reboot bootloader: OK

4) Run ./trigger 4.

This was the output:

Using Trigger 4

target reported max download size of 536870912 bytes

sending './recovery.zip' (3477 KB)...

OKAY [ 0.150s]

writing './recovery.zip'...

FAILED (remote: flash_cmds error!

)

finished. total time: 0.201s

target reported max download size of 536870912 bytes

sending './recovery.launcher' (400 KB)...

OKAY [ 0.047s]

writing './recovery.launcher'...

FAILED (remote: flash_cmds error!

)

finished. total time: 0.099s

...

(bootloader) Start partitioning

OKAY [ 0.074s]

finished. total time: 0.074s

target reported max download size of 536870912 bytes

sending '/system/bin/logcat' (178 KB)...

OKAY [ 0.038s]

writing '/system/bin/logcat'...

OKAY [ 0.042s]

finished. total time: 0.080s

...

(bootloader) Stop partitioning

OKAY [ 0.045s]

finished. total time: 0.045s

The device is still in the bootloader ...

What next?

paniced

tuxic
[MeMO Pad 7 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] lambdadroid:
/tmp was the target directory on the device, not the directory to load the files from your PC :P

Don't worry, just fix the script, restart the bootloader (you can navigate using the volume buttons, select restart bootloader, then press power) and try again.
[MeMO Pad 7 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] tuxic001:
OK (wiping the sweat off my forehead...)

I was thinking too much in UNIX-style (<cmd> <source> <target>) .... the script is somehow vice versa...

Thanks a lot for saveing my device/life ! Unfortunately a posting does only have ONE -thanks- button (pressing this one).

I installed RootChecker: SUCCESS ! I AM ROOTED! OH YEAH!

SuperSu is installed, too.

Oh dear! What an exciting Sunday...outside the weather cannot decide between "Summer" (heat!) and "Fall" (heavy rain and thunderstorms)

and inside I am pushed between "Just another brick in the wall" (the fear of creating one) and HURRAY! ROOTED!

From "my first Android" to "system administrator on a Android device" in only four days.

THIS is only possible with the friendly support of this great forum - namely mis012 and cyandro !

This time: Not kidding -- just the pure and naked TRUTH! :)

:)

Next is busybox...

Best regards,

tuxic
[MeMO Pad 7 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Mis012:
The best way too backup (you need root acces, but you can also use terminal in twrp) is to backup all emmc

cat /dev/block/mmcblk0 > /sdcard/backup.img

Then, if anything goes wrong, go to UEFI (if it will go sooo wrong, you will boot there automaticaly), use powerd hub to connect live linux thumb drive and keyboard, boot live linux and restore the backup.

And the M is not m on purpose. please call me Mis012, I would be more happy :'(
[MeMO Pad 7 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] tuxic001:
Hi Mis012,

sorry for that mispelling of your name - it was not intentionally.

Copying the whole device into an backup image is a neat trick! Yeah.

WIth busybox/Linux this may be a little faster, since one could give the blocksize :

dd if=/dev/mmcblk0 of=<path to the backup> bs=(2048 times <factor>)

where

bs=(2048 times <factor>) means:

2048 is the native blocksize of the emmcblk0 device and you can put <factor>=<RAMsize - margin>/<2048>

copies of a read block into RAM. Avoid swapping here. Some preread blocks in RAM make I/O a little

smoother, but occupying the whole RAM does not make any sense... ;)

<margin> therefore is the ammount of RAM which is kept untouched by dd.

Any "must have" apps of an Android sysadmin newbie?

Is there a rule of thumb, which applications can be backupped and then deleted without getting problems?

I dont like Google not that much for standing behind me and looking over my shoulder every day.....

Best regards,

tuxic
[MeMO Pad 7 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] lambdadroid:
dd should be also available in your Android shell without any additional installation, I've already used it once.

Dunno. :P As a semi-paranoid user I like DroidWall (requires root), it allows you to restrict Internet access for a few apps you select only, so they don't talk secretly to the Internet. :P Some other useful apps if you have root:

Root file explorer: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.estrongs.android.pop

If you just want to backup data of one app TitaniumBackup may be also useful.

You can basically just "freeze" (pretty much the same as disabling) the apps instead of removing them so you don't need to backup. There are various apps on the app store which require root and can do this for you, e.g. AppFreezer (there are also tons of other apps doing this, just search for the one you like best.) Generally you can diable most of the apps you can also see in your app list, just don't disable something like SystemUI or something similar.
[MeMO Pad 7 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] tuxic001:
Ok, next problem...(as you may already have guessed... ;)

I am digging into Titaniumbackup (vers.:7.2.0.1) backup and want to set the backup folder onto my external sdcard.

"Folder not writeable" it says.

I googled and found sdcard fix apps -- for kitkat.

I found the advice (not for my ME167CX though) that with Lollipop one has to set the "Document provider" in the

preferences...

But I really didnt find such a setting.

As a Linuxarian, I know, it is a one liner of a change in /etc/fstab or where/whatever it is called on android...but I feel a lot better

if a app would do a remount -o rw <mountpoint> instead of changing boot files in the heart of the matrix...

How can I fix this...I want to minimalize the write accesses to the internal flash as much as possible

(any further apps for that purpose?)

Best regards,

tuxic (or better: "fixit" ? ;) )
[MeMO Pad 7 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] lambdadroid:
You would need to change a Android configuration file or something - never done this so I can't help you with this BUT while apps don't have write access to the external sdcard directly they can write into their dedicated data folder. On your external sdcard (check with the file explorer) there should be a folder Android/data or something with already a few folders in. TitaniumBackup can write to its folder in Android/data/com.keramidas.TitaniumBackup or something similar by default (if it doesn't exist, simply create it). If you select this folder in the app for the backups you should be able to create them on the sdcard.
[MeMO Pad 7 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] tuxic001:
Ok...that is beyond my plain old UNIX/Linux knowledge....

Thanks a lot, cyandro - it works!

Best regards,

tuxic
[MeMO Pad 7 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Mis012:
With lollipop update, apps can also write to folders they create themselves. Or you can use Titanium Backup or another app to make your file browser system app, so it can do whatever it wants with sdcard (if your filebrowser doesn't already bypass the restriction somehow using root.) And dd is also an option, of course (how could I forget :confused: )

Once my tablet will return, I will try to do something to bypass the need of powered hub, will include it in tutorial on dual boot :)

And don't worry about my name, it's just it looks terrible to me when I see it. That's why I don't like sites which convert BIGsmallBIg to bigsmallbig.
[MeMO Pad 7 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] tuxic001:
Hi Mis012,

Tutorial on dual boot? :)

OH YEAH!

Dual boot for Android and Linux would be SO nice! Cant wait.... ;)

Ok, next two "problems"/questions:

I used AppFreezer to screw up my ME176CX.... ;)

Read: I overfreeze the system: Suddenly USB MTP didn't made any connection to my PC anymore.

To get the sweat off my head as fast as possible I melt ALL applications, which were freezed and rebooted

my tablet and TADA! it works again. So far so nice...but: Is there is a list of apps which can be frozen without

problems and without harming a base funcionalty?

How can I speed up startup times after shutdown?

Autostart manager and another app, which name I currently dont remember promise

to stop autostarting and preloading, but with mixed results. Any recommandations

for a app which does this better?

I found an Xserver for Android on pay.store. :)

Is there any other profen way than Wifi to make a connection to the ME176CX via ethernet from my PC?

The AriettaG25 (a very small (three poststamps) embedded Linux system) does ethernet over

USB...so....

Any way?

The hackers keyboard DOES include the "|" symbol. Nice keyboard for ... hacking on the ME176CX

("hacking" meant in way of "exploring technique") ideal!

Oh damn, this nice "little" tablet is such an interesting piece of hardware to hack ! :):)

Best regards

tuxic
[MeMO Pad 7 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] lambdadroid:
I don't have one, however I would say every app you can start directly from your home screen you should be also able to freeze without major problems. Better keep the other ones.

I doubt you can do much against this, the device generally seems to require a lot of time for starting, I guess it's actually the Android version provided by ASUS or something in it. A custom ROM may be able to help with this, however currently there is no ROM available yet (we still need to figure out how to bypass the bootloader lock).

Why do you need an ethernet connection? Is USB not enough?
[MeMO Pad 7 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] tuxic001:
Hi cyandro,

Thanks for your reply!:)

OK, good rule of thumb! Will try that!

I need an ethernet connection, since some installed apps ( in my case: GNURoot) needs that.

GNURoot installs a rudimentary Linux Rootfs on SDcard, and after that the installer wants to

access the internet to download a user customizable list of Linux applications.

What other connection via ethernet can I establish other than Wifi ?

Bootloader:

What does the bootloader say, whether its loads a valid kernel?

Why not to install single binaries (for example everything in /usr/bin or equivalent)?

Or is it my lack of knowledge of the whole process ... which dont let me the truth here? ;)

Best regards,

tuxic