[General Questions and Answers] Marotte:
Hi,

Many thx for your answers.

I can confirm that. I accidentally uninstalled the stock launcher with ADB. I’ve been able to install another launcher (I think I’ll keep on Nova Launcher). I tested a few (Launcher<3 and KISS Launcher), although they work fine none of them support switching between running apps. It’s a little bit annoying but I have another way to stop running apps (with App Manager). I guess the only way to get this functionality back is to flash again the boot partition with the Magisk patched image I already used, and to re-configure all the phone again (this is good to learn and luckily I don’t have important data in the phone yet).

Couldn’t be possible to dump both boot and userdata partitions and then flash them back both “at once”. The key for encrypting/decrypting the user data being contains in the boot (system ?) partition?

I realize Android has a bunch of security configuration you rarely find on a Linux server. Also the hardware is full of devices which require close-source firmware to operate. This is definitively not a good platform for hacking, like most PC are or a Rasberry Pi is :). And I bet Windows and Apple phones are evermore closed…

About encrypting, I have a file called "googlekey/kb_0000000000.bin", which is the same in two archives the support sent me

This file is not “per device” knowing every S96Pro users get the same archives. What’s its purpose?

I wonder the same for many files in this archive but I won’t bother you, I’ll make some search.

The one thing I’d like to understand is why the archive is labelled "1203.V3.04" and the system on my phone (after I flashed the boot partition with (a Magisk patched made from) the boot.img in this archive says : "0128.V3.03_20210128". Could it be related to the Magisk patching? (I didn’t check what I had with the stock boot.img). Or I have been downgraded by Google during install?

Thx for this. What does it imply to do so? Will the Android system run with this unencrypted data partition? Is there a way to encrypt it again? (With ADB or directly in the phone?)

I’ve seen there are dozens of partitions on a running Android. So far this is what I understood (is this correct?) : There are three important partitions : boot, recovery and userdata. "boot" et "recovery" are the only ones the device can boot on (except booting from an image in fastboot mode using "fastboot boot boot.img"?). Are they some other important partitions this is important to be aware of?

Having a bootable "boot" and a bootable "recovery" partitions, it should be possible to install two different Android OS? I guess this is not possible and the "recovery" partition is dedicated to recovering (ie: reinstall the system) but I don’t understand how and why exactly. The encrypting thing maybe? The system must have a userdata partition and this one can’t be shared between to system…

I think I should buy an older Android smartphone to make all that kind of test, especially knowing I don’t have any other phone I can use for everyday use… Do you have some advice on brands and models which are more friendly with customization of the system?

Apart of ADB and fastboot, what are the other important tools to know about?

For Android development (I mean development of apps for Android), does everyone use an emulator? What’s the best option for such an emulator on Linux?

Have a nice day.

Have a nice day.

I went for the official Android Studio from Google. I guess it’s the best for a complete newbie like me. I’ve been able to start a virtual phone with it.