Author: yochananmarqos

[Linux] Update adb & fastboot to the latest version

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The latest version of adb is 1.0.39, however the version available from the Ubuntu repositories is 1.0.32. The repo version is dated March 2016, however ADB v1.0.32 was released when Lollipop launched.

Google recently made it easier to grab just the latest platform tools rather than download the whole Android SDK. I’ve written a small script to manually update adb and fastboot.

#!/bin/bash
wget https://dl.google.com/android/repository/platform-tools-latest-linux.zip
unzip \platform-tools-latest-linux.zip
sudo cp platform-tools/adb /usr/bin/adb
sudo cp platform-tools/fastboot /usr/bin/fastboot

Now run adb version to verify it’s been updated.

Copy & paste that into your favorite text editor like gedit or notepadqq, save it as a shell script and make it executable. When a new version of Android is released would be a good time to run it in case there’s new version of the platform tools.

[Android] 6 ways to flash a boot.img

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  1. A handy app like Flashify or Rashr
  2. If you’re a franco.Kernel user & have FKU installed, You can use the built-in File Manager to browse to anywhere on your SD card & choose your boot.img
  3. Via adb:  fastboot flash boot boot.img
  4. One can also temporarily flash a boot.img into memory that only persists until the next reboot whereupon the the original permanent kernel is used again: fastboot boot boot.img
  5. Open an existing flashable ZIP, replace the boot.img with the newer one then flash it via recovery
  6. Copy your boot.img to the root of your SD card. Then type the following in an adb shell:  dd if=/sdcard/boot.img of=/dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/boot.img

— credit goes to Francisco Franco (XDA, G+) for inspiring me to write this

Welcome to GravityBox

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GravityBx

You’re here because you heard about the wonders of GravityBox. You’re excited to install it right now without any further ado. You’re in the right place! Hey, just to make sure you’ll be able to take advantage of all it’s capabilities without any issues, we’ve created this comprehensive guide to make sure it’ll be smooth sailing.


GravityBox Introduction

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First and foremost, you must have a vanilla  AOSP ROM (or close to)  installed on your device. GravityBox comes in two flavors: Android 4.1, 4.2 or 4.3 (Jelly Bean) and Android 4.4+(Kit Kat). Plain AOSP ROM’s can be found installed stock on Google Nexus & Google Play Edition devices. Recently support has also been added to the Moto G Dual SIM (stock Kit Kat only). If you have an MTK device with Jelly Bean, you’re in luck. It supports a majority of MTK6589, MTK6577, MTK8389 devices. For Kit Kat, initial MTK support has just been added for the ThL 5000 (MTK6592).

But wait! My device / ROM was not mentioned! My ROM is based on AOSP, will that work?

stop

Installing on a proprietary stock manufacturer ROM like Samsung or HTC, or any custom ROM like Cyanogenmod or Paranoid Android is like installing two ROM’s on top of each other. Impossible and preposterous. Even though your ROM may look like stock AOSP, the code behind the scenes has been modified heavily.

If you insist and install it anyway, you’re on your own. No support is offered. You are not welcome to report “bugs” on neither the XDA thread, Google Plus nor any other method of contacting the developer. You’re free to create your own thread somewhere else to talk about using GravityBox on unsupported devices / ROM’s. If your favorite custom ROM is missing features you require, please contact your ROM team for further customization options.

Before we begin, please read the entire first post of the appropriate XDA Developers forum thread. For Jelly Bean, see here and for Kit Kat see here. Please especially note the compatibility information in red. We also have our own FAQ page.

Now that you’ve verified you qualify to enhance your device with GravityBox to the fullest, we’ll proceed to installation.

GravityBox Installation

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GravityBox requires a rooted device with the Xposed Installer (Framework) installed. If you don’t have the Xposed Framework installed, you can install it here.

After installing, open it and tap on Framework.

Since I already have it installed, the active version numbers are green. You’ll see yours are still red. Press the Install/Update button. You will be prompted to allow Xposed root access. Once that’s done, you can reboot by pressing the Reboot button. Do not use the Soft reboot option.

After rebooting, launch the Xposed Installer from your app drawer & tap Download. This is where you can find Xposed Modules from the Xposed Repository within the Installer. Tap the search icon at the top.

By the time you’ve typed “grav”, you’ll see GravityBox [KK] and GravityBox [JB]. Pick your applicable flavor and swipe to the right to the Versions tab.

Tap the Download button to install the latest version. After it’s installed, tap Done instead of Open like you normally might. You’ll soon see a new notification from the Xposed Installer that you have a module installed but not activated. The notification will give you the option to activate & reboot. Alternately, you can hit your Back button twice to return to the main Xposed Installer menu & tap Modules. You’ll see GravityBox listed. Check the box on the right to activate it & reboot.

Now that you’ve successfully installed GravityBox, activated it & rebooted you’re ready to start tweaking the settings to you liking. You’ll find GravityBox in your app drawer just like any other app.

Screenshot tutorial  coming soon!

 Here’s a video installation & activation tutorial:

A good review I found on YouTube by Jared Busch:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Szwg6GyRrBo

GravityBox was also featured on XDA Developer TV:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68EwHBOyKPE