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Zalgariath · 12-26-2010, 06:53 PM

Gday All, just picked up a Garmin Asus A50 for Xmas and was surprised to see it doesnt have it's area here. (If Ive missed something let me know Wink

Slowly figuring out how it works but getting annoyed at a few things, primarily the inability to delete pre-installed rubbish apps.

It is one of the $199 Dollar jobs from Optus Prepay and Dick Smith, which is suppossedly locked to Optus Network... but both my Telstra and Vodaphone SIMS seem to work fine Big Grin

So my question is this, is there a way to "Clean" install the 2.1 A50 operating system WITHOUT all the crap?

Or failing that, how to forcefully delete apps?

Cheers!

skooter · 12-27-2010, 01:43 AM

I doubt you'll be able to remove the crap - check if you can get root permissions (adb root), if so you'll be able to manually remove everything.

Is the bootloader locked? If not you could try xda, but I don't know if they have something compatible...

Zalgariath · 12-27-2010, 09:29 PM

(12-27-2010 01:43 AM)skooter Wrote: I doubt you'll be able to remove the crap - check if you can get root permissions (adb root), if so you'll be able to manually remove everything.

Is the bootloader locked? If not you could try xda, but I don't know if they have something compatible...

Cheers, I am doubtful too but I'll have a peek at what you suggest. Thanks!

skooter · 12-28-2010, 05:11 AM

(12-27-2010 09:29 PM)Zalgariath Wrote:
(12-27-2010 01:43 AM)skooter Wrote: I doubt you'll be able to remove the crap - check if you can get root permissions (adb root), if so you'll be able to manually remove everything.

Is the bootloader locked? If not you could try xda, but I don't know if they have something compatible...

Cheers, I am doubtful too but I'll have a peek at what you suggest. Thanks!

No probs, let us know how you get on so we can all file this away for future tablet decision making...

Zalgariath · 12-28-2010, 10:27 PM

(12-27-2010 01:43 AM)skooter Wrote: No probs, let us know how you get on so we can all file this away for future tablet decision making...

Got the answers from Whirlpool Big Grin

...an exert from the forum is below the link... other interesting stuff there too!(http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-rep...2580&p=14)

Once it's rooted, the easiest way is to purchase an app called 'Root Explorer' from the market. It's only $4 and well worth it as there aren't too many safe alternatives on the web (I've checked) unless you want to get SDK and play around with command lines etc. Not worth the risk IMO.

Before you delete anything make sure you have a BACKUP. Lots of Free backup apps to choose from.

Most of the Optus crap and bloatware are in a folder called /system/carrier/persist-app. I have deleted Optus.apk facebook/myspece etc without any issues. There's a few other things in there that you may want to get rid of as well. Just be careful and do it slowly.

There's another directory called /system/app which has some of the other apps but I didn't remove anything from there as there's a lot of garmin stuff I didn't want to touch.

My screens look a lot cleaner now.

Good luck!

User #35576 11 posts Bonkers
Thanks ipit, worked a treat.

Would you know how to get rid of or change the yesOptus boot animation. Would prefer something else or nothing at all.

TIA and regards.

posted 2010-Nov-30, 1:05 pm
User #360312 472 posts ipit

No worries.
The boot image appears to be in system/carrier/images/startup/bootanimation.zip BUT I wasn't game enough to delete it as not sure about consequences. You can try and let me know if you like Wink

EDIT: OK took the gamble and deleted it! The Optus splash screen is gone. All good.
Note: In addition to the above there's a few bootanimation files on the phone that the system will default to when you delete one. Once you delete Optus you'll get the Garmin one (/system/media). If you delete that you'll get and Android one (/system/bin). If you delete that you'll get nothing just a black screen. I settled for the Android one.

skooter · 12-28-2010, 10:52 PM

Also check in the /data/data directory for any backup data for the stuff to get rid of. It's usually not necessary, but its nice to get rid of all traces of the crapware.

Command-line hashing is easy; the xda forums will tell you all about it.

theblake · (This post was last modified: 01-02-2011 11:40 PM by theblake.)

May I ask why you want to go to all this trouble? I have this same phone and you just simply drag the Optus icons off to the bottom of the screen and trash them. They are still included in the list of main applications, but thats not such a big deal.

secondly if you install a clean 2.1 operating system without all the crap, you will also lose all the functionality of the Garmin software.

skooter · 01-03-2011, 01:55 AM

The apps sitting in the app draw can still chew up system resources, and are stilled checked for receivers when intents are fired.

Sure, each individual app has a negligible effect on the system, but they all contribute in little ways to the erosion of the effectiveness of the system.

theblake · 01-03-2011, 01:58 AM

The Optus apps are just web shortcuts.

Zalgariath · 01-03-2011, 12:13 PM

Since I upgraded to 2.1 my Garmin Maps dont work anyway... a common problem from various forums Ive read Angry

Here is the thing though. I rang Garmin Australia and the bloke who answered quickly and very much sounded like he knew what he was talking about said he had never heard of the issue before?! Huh

You would think that such a wide spread problem would be known by the manufacturer!?

Waiting to hear back from them once these public holidays are all done...