Root Finally...

[flyinjoe13]

Finally got Velocity installed and setup the way I like it. It's a tremendous improvement in overall performance compared to the stock. Kudos to Trident for taking the time to put this together for all of us.

I only have one problem with it that I hope I can do something about or I may end up back on the stock ROM. Velocity comes with the latest Google maps version, which I hate because you can't clear the data so over time the app builds up more and more used space. Since I use the Google Maps\Navigation pretty much everyday for work, that's going to be a small problem.

Does anyone know if there is an app out there that allows you to clear the map data periodically? Or is there a way I can push the stock Map app into Velocity and do what I did before and simply ignore the update notices? I know I can just keep uninstalling it and reinstalling it periodically and i may end up doing that if there is no way to clear the data because I would really like to keep Velocity.

I hope this doesn't come across as a knock on Velocity because it's not meant to be. I think it's a tremendous upgrade to the Ally and if it wasn't for my unique situation of using Google Maps so much, I wouldn't even be asking.

 

[PowerBomb]

Congrats, glad you got it to work and are enjoying it. Sure be relatively easy to remove Maps since you have root access now, you'll just have to search around or hope someone can supply you with an older version of the application file. Good luck!

 

[flyinjoe13]

Yeah, I was hoping I could find someone with the old .apk file. I have it on my stock ROM, which I could easily restore if need be. I just don't know how to extract it from there if I did restore the old ROM.

EDIT: I restored my old ROM and got into the system/app folder in terminal emualtor. I know the command to pull the .apk, but not sure of the exact wording to get it to go to my sdcard for storage. What's the exact command line? Or does anyone have the original Maps.apk file?

 

[Goonie21]

flyinjo13 download cachemate for root users from market you can clear it using that app. you can set it to clear all you caches from all your apps I love this little app.

 

[flyinjoe13]

Really, that will clear the google maps data\cache. That'd be great. Thanks for the heads up.

In thinking about this, I guess I could uninstall Google Maps, go out and get myself a good class 6 16gb SDCard, setup apps2sd and then reinstall Google Maps on the SD card. That way using up so much space for Map data won't be a big deal. I'd still like to try and get a copy of the stock Maps.apk file though, whether someone has a copy or I can extract it from my old ROM.

 

[dots]

Really, that will clear the google maps data\cache. That'd be great. Thanks for the heads up.

In thinking about this, I guess I could uninstall Google Maps, go out and get myself a good class 6 16gb SDCard, setup apps2sd and then reinstall Google Maps on the SD card. That way using up so much space for Map data won't be a big deal. I'd still like to try and get a copy of the stock Maps.apk file though, whether someone has a copy or I can extract it from my old ROM.

Maps.apk

I pulled that from a v8 rom so in assuming its the original one the ally shipped with and not the update.

 

[flyinjoe13]

Judging by the file size, I think it might be one of the updated Maps insted of the original, but i'm going to try it and see. Thanks for posting it. I wish I wasn't such a dummy when it comes to linux because I have the original. I just don't know how to get it.

I see some google searches in my future to try and learn how..

 

[darkxsun]

Why does the old version allow clearing cache and the new one not? Is this not something you can access within Settings->Applications?

 

[KuroTsubasa]

For the record, you *don't* need a class 6 sd card for apps2sd. You only need one for swap space (using an sd card partition for extra ram). This is because the frequent writes to the sd card will wear out a lower class card really fast.

If you were to enable apps2sd, you'd still have the problem of the growing cache, however it would be less off an issue. With apps stored on your sd card, your internal memory would be reserved for only caches. The maps cache would still grow, but it'd have a lot more space to do so.

 

[PowerBomb]

If you were to enable apps2sd, you'd still have the problem of the growing cache, however it would be less off an issue.

Do you have to enable apps2sd with Velocity? I was wondering if mine was actually working. I did the proper formatting of the card before flashing the ROM but I can't tell if anything is going to the SD card. If there is something you have to do to "enable" it, I must have missed it?

 

[dots]

Do you have to enable apps2sd with Velocity? I was wondering if mine was actually working. I did the proper formatting of the card before flashing the ROM but I can't tell if anything is going to the SD card. If there is something you have to do to "enable" it, I must have missed it?

With velocity all you have to do it partion your sdcard before flashing velocity. If partioned correctly velocity will take care of the rest.

 

[KuroTsubasa]

No, there's no option to enable it. Just a bad choice of words on my part.

Velocity enables apps2sd automatically when it detects the partition on the sd card (regardless of wether you parrtitioned it before or after flashing velocity).

As for a way to check if it's working, the simplest way would be to check the amount of free space on you phone's internal memory (Settings > SD Card and Phone Storage). See if you've got a lot more free space than you used to.

For a more definate answer, chech if there are any files in "/system/sd". There should be an apps folder in there with all of your applications (Velocity transfers them over on your first boot after partitioning).

 

[PowerBomb]

Ok thanks for the help. I wasn't sure if Apps2SD needed to be downloaded and installed in addition to V3 or if it was already automatically included.

 

[flyinjoe13]

After setting up Apps2SD and installing cachemate, it has helped with my Maps problem somewhat, but there is still data in Maps that cachemate can't clear. So unless someone has a copy of the original Maps.apk file (without ever installing any of the Map updates) that came with the Ally, i'm still going to have to periodically uninstall and reinstall Google Maps. Only the original allows you to clear all data and cache from Google Maps. Every updated version has that feature disabled for some reason. Thankfully with Apps2SD, I won't have to do it as frequently, but I can see it becoming a once every two weeks or month kind of routine as much as I use it.

As I mentioned above, I do have the original on a ROM backup. Is there anyway to extract it from one of the .img files that was created when I backed up the ROM? I do have a computer with Ubuntu on it in my basement so if I could use that instead of Windows, that is an option. I just need the commands to type to look inside an .img file.

 

[KuroTsubasa]

Try searching for a tool called unyaffs. It's a command line tool for Windows and Linux that'll extract the files from a nandroid .img file. The official Google Code page has a pre-built Linux version to download. Alternatively, you can look for Windows version (unyaffs.exe), however all the links I found to it were various file sharing sites, not official links.

I've tried out both the Linux version and a Windows copy from a file sharing link and they both work fine. A quick note though, the files get extracted to your current directory, so you might want to place the .img and unyaffs in a new folder first.

Note: You'll probably want to extract "system.img" because that should contain the original Google Maps apk. Any Market updates would be in "data.img", but that doesn't sound like what you want.

 

[flyinjoe13]

You are my hero. Unyaffs did the trick perfectly and now I have access to all the stock .apk files that I hadn't removed before I made the backup, most importantly, the Maps.apk file. I'd triple thank you if the forum allowed it.

 

[KuroTsubasa]

No problem. I was a little curious myself. Originally, I assumed that they'd be regular old .img files that you could open with any archive manager... but apparently they're a little different.