3. Removing unwanted apps manually (Expersise: Intermediate, Importance: moderate)
Prerequisite Tools, Apps or Tutorials
First, you'll need to follow the instructions in the first tutorial and root your device.
Second, you'll need to download and install terminal program. I prefer ConnectBot, but there are plenty of terminal programs out there.
Thirdly, you'll need BusyBox installed. Grab it from my app pack or online.
(NOTE: Make sure you install the busybox apk and then RUN IT to complete the install!)
Steps
1. First, using your terminal of choice, connect to the local shell. Some terminals will default to local, or be local-only. ConnectBot requires you choose the local option and enter a nickname (it can simply be blank for local).
2. In the console type:
Code:
mount | grep /system
The mount command wants to output all the mount data on your device, but the pipe (this thing --> |) sends the output to a grep command which filters it and prints only the lines that contain "/system", which is the line we need.
3. You'll see that the ro (read-only) flag is active, meaning we can't currently delete anything in this area of storage.
4. Time to get to work. Type "su" to request (and gain) root access. If successful you'll see your shell prompt change to a # symbol.
5. To remount the /system partition as read-write just type:
Code:
mount -o remount,rw -t ext4 /dev/block/mmcblk0p1 /system
You may notice your text scrolling off the edge of your screen, that's fine.
6. Anyway, I'm not going to get into what all that means, but it will remount /system as read-write.
You can confirm that by running that same command we wrote earlier:
Code:
mount | grep /system
And you'll see the ro flag has become an rw flag.
Now, change directory to the folder with the built-in apps.
7. Typing "ls" will list all the apps in this folder. It will probably scroll off the top of your screen but in ConnectBot you can scroll up and down with the touchscreen.
8. To permanently remove an app simply use the command:
9. To temporarily remove an app, use the command:
Code:
mv appname.apk appname.apk.bak
Additional Notes:
The following is a list of all apps found on a stock Vox as of the last firmware update:
Anything ending in Stub.apk is just a link to a website and can safely be removed (you can remove them in bulk by using *Stub.apk with the rm command).
Here are the apps I've removed and therefor confirmed as safe to remove: