gone down south
Well-known member
Oh, so then it's just too bad for users who simply want to revert to a prior version of Android, like with the 4.4 problem?
It's hardly a "simple" matter...
Sent from my Nexus 4 using AC Forums mobile app
Oh, so then it's just too bad for users who simply want to revert to a prior version of Android, like with the 4.4 problem?
From what I'm seeing in this thread, Indigoquilter, the instructions that Fairclough and mawil1013 have lined to and otherwise discussed, along with others here, are very straight forward and about as simple as you're going to get. I guess nobody has bothered to picked up the idea that unrEVOked had and run with it. That is incredibly unfortunate, but... c'est la vie.
I'd love to revert to 4.3, but I clearly don't even begin to have the level of knowledge necessary for the job. Unless there are serious fixes, the changes are making my tablet extremely difficult to use, and may even make it unusable. For instance, I can't really use it for internet browsing any more, unless Boat Browsers releases an update which gets text reflow to work again when you increase the text size, and come to that gets text resizing to work again - I'm visually impaired, I need relatively large print. The tablet (2012 Nexus 7) is juddering and horribly slow, and I had to charge it today less than 4 hours after starting to use it - and we're talking intermittent, light use as well. Two apps so far aren't working at all, including, ironically, Google Hangouts - which appeared to log me in to my boyfriend's account just before the update, too, which has been slightly worrying us. I seem to be forever touching the screen multiple times to get the touch to register.
It's less than a year since I bought the tablet (from PC World in the UK), so do I have any options in terms of warranties or what have you? It shouldn't become unusable after a mere OS update. I'll check the consumer law with Citizens Advice tomorrow, but so far I've called PC World and the automated system has informed me that I should be talking to Asus.
I've done some googling and people are talking about Google releasing an update to KitKat fairly soon. However, I have no idea what "soon" might mean. Does anyone have an idea? I bought the tablet on 27/12/12, so if there's any kind of policy lasting a year where I could be covered for a replacement, I don't have all that long. Also does anyone have an idea of which problems are likely to be fixed? Obviously it's not Google's responsibility that my browser is no longer working properly, that's up to the browser developer, but I'm thinking in terms of the keyboard lag, touchscreen problems, and battery drain.
(When I was vaguely thinking of replacing my tablet the other week, and went to have a look at the Samsung 8" models, I discovered that you can't really use them upside down, as when they are plugged in to charge while sitting on their stand. The sales guy expressed surprise that anyone would need to use a tablet while it was charging. Hah.)
In more minor grumbling, why did they get rid of the colour in the indicators for battery and wifi? It wasn't just pretty, it was actually functional. I do remember the days of monochrome computing systems, I grew up with green on black screens, but I thought all that was long behind us.
The biggest problem is that there really isn't anything physically wrong with your tablet, or it would have exhibited this behavior from the beginning. It's a software issue (of some kind) and simply exchanging your existing tablet for a new one will not solve anything, because either it's going to have the update on it when you buy it, or very shortly afterward. In any event, the same update will cause the same problem.
And yes, of course you could make the argument that the next unit, if it doesn't already *have* the update, will only ever download it but you won't tell it to go ahead and install it. But how long are you going to let that pending update operation sit there? Until the Cybermen come up out of the London sewers and try to take over... oh, crap, they've already done that. Well, until the Daleks come and decide to wipe out... whoops, they've already done that, too. Well, what about the Siluri... oh, never mind.
The point is that until Google fixes this, we're all of us well and truly screwed, basically.
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There used to be a program back in the day to root and re-ROM the HTC EVO 4G. It was great for those of us who aren't developers. It is a shame that no such software seems to exist for the Nexus series of devices today.
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You can't just double-click the flashing batch file in Mac OS X. Likewise, there's no explanation by Google of modifying your system like Someguy01234 said above to get the fastboot command to work everywhere. In fact, how would the average person even *know* about such things as bash or path statements? I know a bit about bash and am comfortable navigating around via CLI and even I don't (didn't) know how to modify and add things to path.
And, to be honest, I'm of really mixed feelings here about who's responsibility it should be to support the hackability of an OS which is designed to be hackable by a company which ostensibly believes in and supports the F/OSS movement and the hacker ethic. I think Google should build a program to root and re-ROM devices, but not all hardware works quite the same way so maybe the phone makers should make ports. But then, the community itself will want abilities and features and so maybe they should do a port, or maybe scratch-build the thing.
If you don't understand the process, you have no business playing around in the guts of your OS.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using AC Forums mobile app
Oh, so then it's just too bad for users who simply want to revert to a prior version of Android, like with the 4.4 problem?
"As simple as you're going to get" doesn't mean that they can be safely and reliably done by people who have no idea how to do any of this, though. I'll trust the many people on this thread who've said that it's not safe for beginners, if you don't mind.
A friend who does do this sort of thing for a living has offered to install Cyanogenmod if all else fails. Meanwhile, PC World have said that if the item is defective, which means that I have to speak to Asus, then I'm eligible for a replacement. I'm going to ring Asus in the morning and see what they say, though I've a nasty feeling that all advice will begin with doing a factory reset, and from what I've heard that won't fix the problem. The thing is, I don't want to spend hours copying over all my settings and bits of info, and putting them back on, if it turns out that there's an update for KitKat on the way which will fix everything. So to repeat my earlier question: how soon would people guess that an update is likely to appear, and how much is it realistically likely to fix?
In more minor grumbling, why did they get rid of the colour in the indicators for battery and wifi? It wasn't just pretty, it was actually functional. I do remember the days of monochrome computing systems, I grew up with green on black screens, but I thought all that was long behind us.
You haveto be willing to educate yourself, for the life of me I couldn't figure out how to even unlock let alone root my nexus 7. No one tutorials can walk you thru the Proteus unless your running exactly and precisely the same pc as all as mobile device and pc and same operating systems. I found Wugfresh app. I struggled because I didn't slow down and read everything up front once I had the correct device and is, that's all, select those and the app does everything for you. I still have no ideas about the guys of a android but with wugfresh my nexus 7 is unlocked, rooted and reverted back to jelly bean!
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I do realise that once you know how to do it, it seems simple, but then that would be like me running around telling you all that you can do highly skilled hand-quilting this very week, even if you have never picked up a needle in your lives, just because I've been doing it so long (and have a natural talent for it) that it seems easy to me by now.
Here's something for you to mull over the next time you're down the pub with a couple of your mates, over a pint of ale or something equally good: Times have changed, and products of the modern era are really only half the thing you bought, and the other half is something you really never bought and can never touch, and you don't actually own. But yet, many good people such as yourself still are thinking of this product in the same sense you think of a rake or a shovel or a brick or even a cricket bat.Yep, this is what I was wondering. Thanks for letting me know. It's strange that the problem seems to be worse on Nexus models, though.
The short answer is I have absolutely no idea. The somewhat longer answer is Google is presumably aware of the problem and, equally presumably, is working on fixing it. With any luck, 4.4.1 will nail whatever the heck it is that's causing this problem and the others that other people here have experienced. My best guess is it'll probably be out within the next few weeks, but remember something. I'm just another random guy sitting in front of another computer on a different continent from where you are, and there's no way for me to "know" the answer. Then again, there's probably only a handful of people within Google who might have an authoritative guess, and those would be the people actually working the problem.Do you have any idea how long it's likely to be before Google fix this? More to the point, is there anything I can and should be doing now, while it's still within the magic one year? Or is it just a matter of gritting my teeth, seeing what Google releases, and if Google don't fix it, installing Cyanogenmod or similar?
Sorry; at the time I wrote the post you quoted, I couldn't remember the name of the project. It is called unrEVOked and yes, you're right: it was produced by one (or more?) independent developers. It actually was a pretty darned good little program that worked exceptionally well. Take a look at their site. It would be wonderful to see someone else learn about it and pick up the torch. I tried looking at the wugfresh web site the other day, but I didn't get very far with that because I've been really busy lately in my personal life with work, etc. From what little I've seen, it looks decent. And, if it does what it claims and does so as simply and straight-fowardly as it seems to claim, then folks such as Indigoquilter should have little problem using it, so long as it does properly support their device.I'm not familiar with this program you speak of, but I'm assuming it wasn't an "official" program, but rather one made available by an independent developer. The wugfresh toolkit is simply another example of such a tool.
One can make the claim that GNU/Linux is an OS "by geeks, for geeks" but, at the end of the day, distros are to an extent "products" and surely the various commercial interests involved think of GNU/Linux as product, not as a hobbyist operating system. Likewise, Google clearly thinks of Android as a product, because they are in the business of having business-oriented, money-making ecosystem for Android, and it is ultimately a credible platform in every sense of the word.I agree with you to a point, but the fact is that Android is an "OS which is designed to be hackable", but of course you have to have at least a basic knowledge of what's going on before you can dive right in and start messing with things. Pretty much any Linux distro is the same way.
Asus say that a factory reset should restore it to Jellybean, and then I simply don't accept the invitation to update to KitKat when it turns up. Surely people here have tried that? What happened? I don't want to mess around with that (it'll take hours, and I'll lose app data) unless it's got a reasonable chance of working.