The Ermine "Tweaks" Thread (Gapps, Ermine Bugs, and More)

[kennyminot]

I noticed some of the information about tweaking Ermine has started to become splintered and lost in the interwebs. Therefore, I'm consolidating the information to this thread, which I'll update as soon as new information becomes available. In addition, I've added a list about the known bugs in Ermine, so we can work together to come up with some solutions to these problems.

(For those of you who know me, the truth is I'm still procrastinating on my dissertation.)

If you aren't familiar with some of the language on this thread, I recommend checking out emusan's glossary. Also, he offers this helpful piece of advice: "If you don't know what one of the terms means you should likely do some more research about what you are doing before proceeding. When developing on a device like this (especially without warranty or official support), it can be very risky." Finally, if you're not familiar with what "rooting" means, you might want to check out this thread.

VERY IMPORTANT: Make sure you backup any sensitive files before messing around with your device. If you completely wreck your system, instructions for restoring it to its factory state can be found here. In some cases, you might have trouble reverting back to Dingo because the update will reboot after only about thirty seconds. If you are having these problems, you might want to try darkgrue's fix.

Installing Ermine and Rooting your Device

Step 1. Download the Ermine update files.

Step 2. Install the Ermine update. Before you get started, just be aware that you are taking some risk, although most users think it's worth it. While this might seem obvious, make sure you install the appropriate update file. You will mess things up if you install the Pocket Edge update on the full-sized Edge.

Step 3. Download z4root and root your device. Most of the tweaks on this thread require you to gain root access, which is a mostly safe procedure that gives you more control over your operating system. After you launch z4root, select the "permanent root" option. The program should do the rest of the work.

Step 4. Invest some money in Titanium Backup and Root Explorer. Trust me: they're worth it.

Gapps

1. Install the Golden Allmine Update - While installing this update will wipe your device, it will provide you with access to Gapps and the Google Market. Just a warning: do not try to install this on the original, full-sized eDGe. The update is only for the Pocket eDGe and will therefore brick your device.

2. Enabling the Android Market with a Rooted Phone - If you have the larger Entourage eDGe, you might want to try this procedure. It requires that you have a rooted Android phone with Titanium Backup.

3. Enabling Gapps without a Rooted Phone - While you currently can't get the market to work without using one of the above methods, you can at least enable some of the other gapps. Once you get the applications installed, you need to setup your Google account through the YouTube application. If you have some problems syncing your account, try emusan's method on this thread. Finally, if this all seems like too much of a hassle, consider using the built-in Froyo Mail application to skip the entire process.

Build.prop Tweaks

wifi.supplicant_scan_interval = 90
windowsmgr.max_events_per_sec=60
ro.sf.lcd_density=120

For more information about these changes, check out yugami's posts.

Ermine Bugs

1. Hibernation Issues - Some people have problems with Ermine locking up when coming out of hibernation. This issue doesn't appear to affect all devices. At the moment, we're speculating that the eDGe was built with a variety of different hardware chips, which is a tactic that companies occasionally use to keep down prices. Right now, there is no fix for the problem, although some users have been trying to develop a workaround. If you have any suggestions, jump over to that thread.

2. The White Screen of Death (WSOD) - Many users have reported that the LCD screen will occasionally flash white when they awaken the device from hibernation. In certain rare cases, the white screen never goes away, even after the person does a hard reset. If you have this problem, most likely your device is hosed. My best advice is to let it sit for a few hours and then try it again. The problem appears to be a hardware issue relating to the ribbon cable that goes through the hinge.

3. Low Battery Life - Some people have complained about the battery life in comparison to other tablets. Fortunately, bunodosoma discovered that the phone and telephony applications might have been causing the problem. Seeing how they are not actually used by the eDGe, you can disable them by going to your system/apps folder in Root Explorer and renaming phone.apk and telephony.apk (my recommendation would be changing them to phone.old and telephony.old, just in case you need to restore them for some reason in the future). The device might lock up after you rename the phone.apk, but everything should work find after a hard restart. Currently, users are estimating this tweak might improve battery life by almost 2 hours. I'd be interested in hearing your experiences with it.

4. Moving Apps to SDCard - Not fixed, but you can find a workaround here. In addition, you might have problems installing some apps because they attempt to automatically install the sdcard. If you have such difficulties, you have one of two options. First, you can switch the sdcard and internal memory by following the third step of these instructions. Then, you can simply unplug your sdcard and try to install. Alternatively, you might try manually unmounting your internal memory through the terminal. In order to do this, you need to first root your device. Then, open up the "dev tools" application and select the "terminal emulator." Then, type "su" and hit enter. Afterwards, type "umount /sdcard" and try to install your program. I'm not sure if this will work, but it's worth a shot.

5. E-ink PDF Annotation - Limited underlining capabilities in portrait mode, doesn't work in landscape mode. Currently, best option is to download Repligo or ezPDF Reader.

6. Lack of Lock Code on Startup - For some reason, the Entourage developers decided it would be smart to have a $450 device with no lock code, for they have purposely disabled this feature. Luckily, you can work around this problem. One route is to download MySettings. Once you boot up the application, it has a "PIN" options in the upper-right corner, which allows you to turn on the lock screen. Alternatively, you can simply use the shortcut feature of Launcher Pro. (If you haven't installed Launcher Pro, I highly recommend it. I personally believe it is the best launcher for Android devices). Essentially, what you do is press and hold on a blank space on the homescreen. Then, you will receive an "Add to Home Screen" dialog box, and you should select "Shortcuts" from the menu. Next, you want to go down to "Activities." You will get a massive list of options. You need to open up "Settings" and choose the option that says "com.android.settings.ChooseLockGeneric" in small letters. Finally, you just select this new icon on your screen. While this method is a little more complicated, I think it's the better option, mostly because you'll save $.99 on purchasing the otherwise worthless MySettings app.

Application Problems

1. Netflix doesn't work. If you are interested in playing around with it, check out this thread.

2. Adobe Flash doesn't play video. You can install it, but you need to download version 10.1.61.68.

3. The browser doesn't automatically open *.txt files. Javese has edited the apk file so Android will ask you whether you want to open *.txt files in the browser. This might be useful because you can use the browser's print-to-eink feature to open e-books that come in *.txt format.

4. Unfortunately, most games work slow as molasses. While the community is not exactly sure of the exact problem, it is most likely a combination of poorly written video drivers and a strange processor without the necessary graphics abilities. However, you can get a few games to work. Angry Birds works perfectly fine once you disable the background. In addition, Angry Birds Rio and some other apps seem to work after installing Chainfire 3D. Alas, Fruit Ninja is still too slow to be playable.

5. Limited options for dumping items from the LCD to the e-ink side. The browser allows you to copy over websites, but if you're working in a different application, you're out of luck. Fortunately, javese has written an app that allows you to essentially do a screen capture and send that information over to the e-ink screen. I haven't personally tried it, but other users have given it their seal of approval.

****************

If you have any suggestions about things to add, just let me know, and I'll update the thread.

Edited:

6/8/2011 to include Mark Rehorst's instructions for enabling your Google account.
6/10/2011 to include yugami's build.prop tweaks.
6/14/2011 to reflect suggested fixes for games and sdcard problems. Also included instructions for rooting the device.
6/30/2011 to includes instructions for initializing lock code.
7/13/2011 to include bunodosoma's battery life tweak.
7/14/2011 to include Ermine update instructions.
7/16/2011 to include darkgrue's Dingo fix and javese's updated browser.apk.
7/19/2011 to include MasterTec's update download links.
7/26/2011 to include javese's lcd2eink application.
7/29/2011 to streamline the Ermine update instructions; also added info on WSOD and hibernation issues.
9/12/2011 to get rid of links to Entourage website.
1/29/2012 to include Allmine update and root explanation.

[emusan]

Nice guide!

My fix/workaround doesn't require the youtube work around(at least it didn't for me, other users might have a different experience)... I've kinda taken a break from eDGe stuff for a little while(at least development, I'm still answering questions, hosting stuff, etc.) I'll probably start back up in the next week or so(assuming nothing big comes up)...

You might want to try and add this to the wiki as well, so we can all cross stuff off and add stuff as we complete it. That and a sticky would be nice(need to wait for a mod for that though)...

And on the topic of messing up devices... one time I was trying to gain some more space on my n900 by moving my home partition to another device(or something like that it was awhile ago), so I mounted it to a folder in the root, and then a few days later I for got about that and did an rm -rf on that folder, I noticed it about 30 seconds after starting and quickly hit Ctrl-C many times, it ended up only deleting a lot of the system stuff but my personal files were kept...

[Mark Rehorst]

Gmail, google calendar, and contacts all sync just fine without having to load any special software or apps pulled out of an android phone.

The setup procedure is in this thread:
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=135866

I have two gmail accounts set up on my PE and everything syncs and automatically updates without any screwing around on my part.

[obsessed2]

I'm convinced Flash will work on the EE or PE. I played around with a browser called Skyfire that will play Flash video but the small preview window won't go away. Skyfire can be downloaded here:

http://www.freewarelovers.com/android/app/skyfire
http://www.freewarelovers.com/androi...eo-license-key


Full flash video demo:

http://www.flashcomguru.com/apps/ful...ullscreen.html



As far as PDFs go, Repligo is a good reader but personally I think ezPDF is better. You can highlight, do web searches, book searches, underline, cross out, add sticky notes etc. to most PDFs.

http://www.forum-bec.com/f244/ezpdf-...android-37856/ FileSonic, select Slow Download.


ezPDF will even read your PDF to you if you have a language pack installed (pretty well I might add):

Android PICO Installer Language Pack (Not an App. Works with other Apps like ezPDF reader).

*** Download using your device ***
http://areacellphone.com/2010/01/dow...age-installer/

Download via PC: http://www.1mobile.com/pico-tts-lang...oid-62221.html Select Samsung S8000 (doesn't matter), Download, Transfer, Install.

[emusan]

sorry if it sounds like I'm nitpicking, but Mark's thread actually doesn't require any gapps be installed, you don't even need to be rooted I think... It just uses the included froyo email. the only problem is that it doesn't technically set up a "google account" so you wont be able to use official gapps... At least if I understand it right.

[Mark Rehorst]

The Froyo Mail app that installs with the ermine update allows you to sync gmail, google calendar, and contacts without rooting or adding any other apps. You do need to have a gmail account first, of course, but you can get one of those by going to the web site.

[kennyminot]

I updated the thread in a way that reflects all the different options. Thanks for the tip, obsessed - I have some issues with how RepliGo does handwriting support, so maybe I'll prefer ezPDF.

I just assumed Flash worked after I installed the latest version. But when I go over to that demo, it doesn't work. Can anybody confirm this? I haven't had any luck installing anything beyond 10.1.

Also, when the xda community figures out how to get Netflix working on other devices, I'm assuming it will work on the Pocket Edge. For some reason, it's really important to me that I can watch Netflix.

[emusan]

Originally Posted by kennyminot

Also, when the xda community figures out how to get Netflix working on other devices, I'm assuming it will work on the Pocket Edge. For some reason, it's really important to me that I can watch Netflix.

lol same, Netflix streaming would be HUGE, maybe at some point in the far future we can even get gingerbread working...

[Agentbolt]

Here's my question: WHY won't flash work? I feel like the single greatest achievement in the Entourage Edge world would be enabling flash on this device. The CPU really, really should be able to handle it.

The older version of flash installs fine (so there's audio, just no video, correct?) but the install fails itself. This is the same issue I'm seeing with a lot of Amazon apps (angry birds, stupid zombies, etc...) plus a lot of the root apps that would really help this device (setcpu was the biggie, I was at least hoping to be able to overclock the CPU to its stock 1.2 ghz speed)

I'm just really hoping someone (certainly not me, I can't even get ADB to work properly) who's got those sick development skillz has some idea of what's causing these items to fail, because it genuinely seems like the edge is a total sleeper in terms of potential useability.

[obsessed2]

The Edge definitely has the ability to process Flash, even with the processor underclocked at 800 MHz.

http://www.marvell.com/products/proc...pxa_168_pb.pdf

Installing Flash 10.1 results in audio with no video. In my case I had to uninstall it because it was interfering with Flash Lite which the Edge uses for other video sources (You Tube). Flash 10.2 will not install.

Skyfire is a web browser that proves the Edge can play Flash content but there is a small pop-up preview window that will not go away.

[ptsenter]

wrong message

[kennyminot]

Agentbolt -

You can actually get Angry Birds to work. The problem with the installation has nothing to do with the eDGe's graphic capabilities but is related to the sdcard problem. It attempts to automatically install to the sdcard, but it can't because of some kind of encryption issues. The way around this is to just unmount the sdcard.

Unfortunately, my system is now configured a little strangely because I've been messing around with it. Therefore, I'm not exactly sure how to get it to work with a standard configuration. You might try two things:

A. Just unplug the sdcard and give it a shot.

B. Go into DevTools and start the terminal emulator. Then, type the following commands:

su
umount /sdcard

Then, install Angry Birds and reboot. You might need to have your system rooted for this to work, but that is a pretty simple process; all you need to do is install and run z4root from the Amazon Marketplace.

Angry Birds runs fine as long as you turn off the background. Otherwise, it's too slow to be playable. I would be extremely interested in figuring out how to overclock this device; however, to get even better performance, my guess is we'd have to play around with the video drivers, which is definitely beyond my ability.

As for Flash, I have no idea why I can't install one of the later versions. The logcat readout is weird, and I can't find any more information about the problem on the interwebs. If you try either of these things, just let me know if they worked, and I'll update the thread.

[Agentbolt]

Angry birds would be a dream come true on this thing, background or no. Unfortunately I don't believe your advice would work for me, as I moved my file system ONTO the SD card, which for whatever reason made the internal 2 gigs of storage simply disappear. With the SD card unmounted I can't even download the APK and put it on my system, and the Amazon Appstore won't even try to install it w/o an SD card installed. Thanks for the heads up on it working for a standard install, though.

I'd have to assume the problems with Flash, SetCPU, and pretty much any of the other headaches we're running into have to do with this Marvel CPU. Googling it shows it simply wasn't used in ANYTHING else. These apps just don't know what to do with it.

[Agentbolt]

All right, so, I take it back, you can absolutely install angry birds even if you've moved the filesystem to the SD Card. I didn't realize ES File Explorer could move the apk from the external to the internal SD Card.

Did you actually get it working at that point though? Firstly, the game will crash the entire edge if you attempt to play it in portrait, you have to rotate to landscape first (simple enough) However, in either landscape mode the game has the problem of not responding to touch inputs in the right place. If I click the gear (settings) icon, the other side menu will open where I can share via facebook or watch videos. If flipped around to the other side, the opposite problem. Also, the sound, info, and background buttons then don't work.

This is 1.5.3, the latest version, also I DO have my edge flipped to have the reader on the right hand side. If anyone else feels like messing with this further, quick hint, you don't need to root or pop out your SD card, simply go into settings under "device storage" (NOT the app, under settings) and simply unmount the SD card from there.

[emusan]

Someone on the old boards managed to get Rio working, you had to get the version from getjar though, its a little strange, but it kinda works... Here is the link to the thread I think: link

and the app on getjar: link

its a little odd, but I got it working this way.