Tag Archives: android

Best way to restore Xperia X10 Mini Pro stock ROM

I found that the only reliable way to restore a stock ROM on this phone is SEUS.

SEUS stands for Sony Ericsson Update Service:

Update your phone for optimal performance and get the latest enhancements. Regardless if you have the latest software, it is a good routine to run Update Service to improve software stability. Also, if you experience problems with your phone this may be solved by a software update.

In the real world this piece of software can be used to restore the stock ROM. It takes care to download everything you need from Sony servers.

It’s a Windows software that was easily accessible from sony site, but now it’s quite hidden in their pages.

The official page is accessible from here.

The direct url I found to download the software is this.

I hope it’s useful to you as it was to me.

Android tip: Launch app through adb shell

Please note than I’m using CyanogenMod 7.

First of all you have to know the Intent and Activity of your interest.

The best way to find them I found is to use logcat.

Open a shell

adb shell

Start logcat filtering the needed rows:

logcat | grep 'Starting:'

Start the app you want to launch later in the standard way (use your phone launcher icon).

Take a look to the lines which come from logcat (i.e. launching Shazam):

I/ActivityManager( 205): Starting: Intent { act=android.intent.action.MAIN cat=[android.intent.category.LAUNCHER] flg=0x10000000 pkg=com.shazam.encore.androidd cmp=com.shazam.encore.android/com.shazam.android.Splash bnds=[365,244][475,362] } from pid 305 I/ActivityManager( 205): Starting: Intent { act=android.intent.action.VIEW flg=0x4000000 cmp=com.shazam.encore.android/com.shazam.android.Home (has extras) } from pid 8096

Now start the app via am:

localhost / # am start -a android.intent.action.MAIN -n com.shazam.encore.android/com.shazam.android.Splash

Look at your phone.

Now you can combine all in one single command:

adb shell 'am start -a android.intent.action.MAIN -n com.shazam.encore.android/com.shazam.android.Splash'

Done.

HowTo: install ClockworkMod Recovery on Xperia X10 Mini Pro using GNU/Linux

Prerequisites

I can show you my situation, I can’t confirm that my guide is usable in different cases:

  • sim unlocked, stock Xperia X10 Mini Pro device rooted (I used my guide)
  • firmware 2.1.1.A.0.6
  • baseband M76XX-TSNCJOLYM-53404015
  • a pc with Ubuntu 11.10 64bit
  • fully functional adb (find more info here)

Disclaimer you must agree before you proceed

Please double check the requirements I wrote before you proceed and remember that:

  • I am not responsible if you brick / ruin your phone in any way;
  • some computer skills are required;
  • do a full backup of your data NOW, it’s not programmed, but you may loose them

Software requirements

CWMInstaller-Linux-v4.zip: download from here or from my mirror.

Do some backup before changing things

On your pc:
adb shell
on the device
# su
# mount -o remount,rw /dev/block/mtdblock0 /system
# cat /system/bin/chargemon > /system/bin/chargemon.original-backup

It’s time to get the job done

The package is done to allow anyone to easily install the whole thing, but I wasn’t able to use the script.
You can see what I did to manually achieve the result.

On your pc
$ unzip CWMInstaller-Linux-v4.zip
$ cd CWMInstaller-Linux/
$ adb push files/ /data/local/tmp

On the phone
$ su
# mount -o remount,rw /dev/block/mtdblock0 /system
# cat /data/local/tmp/recovery.tar > /system/bin/recovery.tar
# cat /data/local/tmp/busybox > /system/bin/busybox
# cat /data/local/tmp/chargemon > /system/bin/chargemon
# chmod 755 /system/bin/recovery.tar
# chmod 755 /system/bin/chargemon
# chmod 755 /system/bin/busybox
# rm /data/local/tmp/chargemon /data/local/tmp/busybox /data/local/tmp/recovery.tar

Done!
# reboot

Test it making a real backup

When booting your phone and when the “Sony Ericsson” letters appear (not the logo), press and release continuously the “back” button.
Once you are in the CW recovery, use the volume keys to navigate upwards / downwards, the “home” or “camera” button to select, the “back” button to go back.

Go to “backup and restore“, “backup” and wait at least 3 minutes (on an empty device).

Conclusions

Now you are ready to install some new ROMs on your device.

References

Automate Listen subscriptions update with Tasker

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I use Listen by Google to listen to my podcasts.
I’m a commuter and I find really frustrating to find new episodes ready to download while I’m already in my car.

To solve this issue I configured Tasker to start Listen on 6:00 in the morning.
This seems to force Listen to update the rss subscriptions.
Listen takes care of the download step.

Tasker Profile export:

Profile: Update Listen (3)
Time: 06:00
Enter: Anon (5)
A1: Load App [ App:Listen Data: Exclude From Recent Apps:On]
A2: Wait [ MS:0 Seconds:0 Minutes:3 Hours:0 Days:0]
A3: Go Home [ Page:0]