Removing Stock Launcher

bigwooly

Member
Nov 24, 2010
124
8
Soo as you all know by now I keep my tablet in some form of disarray trying to make it better.

This time i was reading on another forum and noticed that someone said they were having success with zeam again. Well i didn't i was still getting all the crazy FC's and what not. They didn't go away after removing it either.

Another wipe and reload of market ensued.

This time i decided to give Helix a Try. It's a lightwiegh launcher doesn't have alot of bells and whistles but i don't need all that from a launcher really i just need it to work and to SORT MY APP DRAWER!!!!!!! (sorry but the stock launcher on this tablet just IRKS me)

So Helix was nice and responsive but it still seemed like on startup that the default launcher was some how loading in the background. A closer look with Android System Info and sure enough there it was eating 25 mb of ram even though helix was set to default.

After asking in a couple of android IRC rooms i decided to use root explorer to remove the stock launcher all together. Using root explorer i mounted the /system/app folder and then with a long press on launcher.apk i was able to delete it. A whole mess of FC's followed and i thought ohhhhh great yet another wipe and reload but much to my suprise after i had powered the tablet down (pushing and holding the power button for 10sec then release)

I hit the power button to start it back up and now usually i can walk away from this tablet before it's got everything started and ready to use. not this time. It booted much faster than normal. So i put it to a stopwatch. 55 sec from powered off to wifi connected ready to use.

You mileage may vary. If you find any other launchers that are smaller or improve performance any more let me know.
 

ndamico

Member
Dec 31, 2010
6
2
awesome ..... can't wait to try it when I get home. is it possible to send me a copy of root explorer? i can't find it anywhere. ([email protected])

Also Market stopped working on my tablet.It worked fine for a week or two but now I can't download, use gmail, or Talk. Do you think a reimport of the Google ID is required?

Thanks
 

bigwooly

Member
Nov 24, 2010
124
8
i couldn't say for sure on what broke yours. when ever mine goes screwy i just wipe and reload i have it down to a science. i think i got root explorer from here
 

cfrockit

Senior Member
Dec 26, 2010
627
191
Has removing the stock launcher gotten rid of the initial green screen that is produced after doing the Market hack? I don't mind having to press Menu but it would be nice to just launch to the Home Screen or the lock screen. As like you, I did once experience a launch without Green screen in my many attempts to find the right combination of Google Experience of apps but couldn't get it to work so I'm still experimenting. If it's some conflict of launchers this would be a great fix for the Market hack.
 

bigwooly

Member
Nov 24, 2010
124
8
Has removing the stock launcher gotten rid of the initial green screen that is produced after doing the Market hack? I don't mind having to press Menu but it would be nice to just launch to the Home Screen or the lock screen. As like you, I did once experience a launch without Green screen in my many attempts to find the right combination of Google Experience of apps but couldn't get it to work so I'm still experimenting. If it's some conflict of launchers this would be a great fix for the Market hack.

i still get the green screen but the improved startup and shut down times are worth it. It's also much less sluggish on startup now. IT seems that everything starts up much faster.

Removing it has definately been added to my list of APK's to remove once market is installed. (is that sad i have a list of stuff to do once i have to wipe my tablet again?)
 

cfrockit

Senior Member
Dec 26, 2010
627
191
Not sad at all, I've found myself stringing together a few .bat files to make quick work of re-loading after a wipe. I'm sure you're doing the same. I just keep modifying them as I make up different configurations of what stock apps get deleted and what I push over. Here's a few samples pulled from the various sources. I never figured I'd be back to creating "batch" files more than 30 years later.

Push Google Experience

adb remount
REM
REM push system updates
REM
adb push .\gev\system /system
adb shell rm /data/dalvik-cache/*
adb shell reboot

Add AndroidID

REM add AndroidId
ECHO.
adb shell sqlite3 /data/data/com.google.android.googleapps/databases/gls.db "update meta set intvalue='XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX' where name='androidId';
adb shell sqlite3 /data/data/com.google.android.googleapps/databases/gls.db "select * from meta";
PAUSE

REM remove original apps
REM
adb shell rm -r /system/app/Skyfire.apk
adb shell rm -r /system/app/AlarmClock.apk
adb shell rm -r /system/app/sam3.apk
adb shell rm -r /system/app/Phone.apk
adb shell rm -r /system/app/TelephonyProvider.apk
adb shell rm -r /system/app/Bluetooth.apk
adb shell rm -r /system/app/GoogleSearch.apk
adb shell rm -r /system/app/Term.apk
adb shell rm -r /system/app/FileManager.apk
adb shell rm -r /system/app/CalendarWidget.apk
adb shell rm -r /system/app/WeatherForecast.apk
 
Last edited:

xaueious

Administrator
Staff member
Jul 9, 2010
3,483
436
If someone can put together a batch script everyone can use, it would help a lot of people...
 

dredrian

Member
Dec 23, 2010
9
0
OK, I tried installing the androot I found someplace else in the forum...it installed ok but no apps show up in the list & when I click "Log" it FC...I tried it 3 times last night...

Still a novice and after reading, reading reading I know what I should do on it but don't know how to get to the points to do it :(

How do I pick where the files get loaded to?? "Using root explorer i mounted the /system/app folder and then with a long press on launcher.apk i was able to delete it. "

I guess I still need "Sylvania Set-up for Dummies" thanking all you techies in advance
 

bigwooly

Member
Nov 24, 2010
124
8
i'm not real clear on what you're asking

root explorer is an app that gives you read/write access to your internal storage on your tablet. This is what i used to delete the stock launcher.

you may have an older version of universal androot.

also make sure you go to settings > applications > manage applications and check the box that says allow installation of non market apps or something to that effect.
 

bigwooly

Member
Nov 24, 2010
124
8
Not sad at all, I've found myself stringing together a few .bat files to make quick work of re-loading after a wipe. I'm sure you're doing the same. I just keep modifying them as I make up different configurations of what stock apps get deleted and what I push over. Here's a few samples pulled from the various sources. I never figured I'd be back to creating "batch" files more than 30 years later.

Push Google Experience

adb remount
REM
REM push system updates
REM
adb push .\gev\system /system
adb shell rm /data/dalvik-cache/*
adb shell reboot

Add AndroidID

REM add AndroidId
ECHO.
adb shell sqlite3 /data/data/com.google.android.googleapps/databases/gls.db "update meta set intvalue='XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX' where name='androidId';
adb shell sqlite3 /data/data/com.google.android.googleapps/databases/gls.db "select * from meta";
PAUSE

REM remove original apps
REM
adb shell rm -r /system/app/Skyfire.apk
adb shell rm -r /system/app/AlarmClock.apk
adb shell rm -r /system/app/sam3.apk
adb shell rm -r /system/app/Phone.apk
adb shell rm -r /system/app/TelephonyProvider.apk
adb shell rm -r /system/app/Bluetooth.apk
adb shell rm -r /system/app/GoogleSearch.apk
adb shell rm -r /system/app/Term.apk
adb shell rm -r /system/app/FileManager.apk
adb shell rm -r /system/app/CalendarWidget.apk
adb shell rm -r /system/app/WeatherForecast.apk

funny that's almost identical to my list except up top i have things like root, install gscript, root explorer, etc.

what SUCKS REALLY BAD IS My son stepped on my tablet last night and broke the touch screen. the lcd is intact behind it but the touch screen piece is broken. i haven't tried yet but i'm hoping i can still work it with a keyboard and a mouse. I sent an e-mail to Sylvania to see if it's repairable. hoping something comes of the mod here who is going to try and port a working recovery for us.
 

Ramjet

Member
Feb 1, 2011
5
0
Excellent, thank you I have removed the Launcher and all the other useless apks. These things are reasonably quick when stripped down :D
 
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