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Clearing Cache - what does it do

dbldipp said:
What would be ideal is to have a script that would un hide these files so we could delete them at will. Or the script you mentioned then unhide and delete, and keep unhidden so we could unroot the tablet.
Click to expand...
I've often thought that would be handy also, to have a tool that would provide root access for just long enough to make some harmless change like you've suggested, and then leave the device as if it had never been rooted. The reason such a thing does not exist is probably because most people do not want to revert to limited access after gaining root access. I suspect though that there are also quite a few that do, but very few of those happen to be developers.

I may take you up on the offer if I decide to go back to ICS in the future. I will keep you posted on how the roll back works out. I'm going to send a link to this particular section of the forum here to my contact at ALK and hopes that maybe they will have a solution to the delema we face every day.
Thank you for all your assistence here.
Click to expand...
I'll be watching for your posts on this, and hoping for the best.
 
Well..... Got home early this week so decided to try to tackle the problem head on. Was going to just root it but got lost in the instructions. So after downloading 3 different roms I set off to take it back... NOT!!!!!
I tried every combonation known to man to do a go back, power volume up, power volume down, up with screen lok rocking, you name it... Didn't go back, didn't even do a factory resxet. It jusat cleaned the cache and cleared to settings. But it didn't go back. Guess they really meant it when they said once you have ICS that there's no going back. I'm gonna mess with it more later this weeke end, Have to head out Sunday afternoon, so need to do something here. I deactivated my CoPilot till I figure this out.
 
Playing most of my dasy playing with my brick!!! I have dozens of different roms,none of which will work on my tablet. DAMN ACER!!!!
I finally got one to load only to have it tell me boot verified failed. So now it doesn't boot to anything. When I put my Mini SD in and boot it up it shows the working little android, then the android laying on it's back with the red triangle with the explanation mark.
So much for following directions. Aparently my tablet wasn't intended to be used the way I've been using it so it quit!!!
 
Got it back up and running on 3.2.1. Not an easy task since I bric ked it. I didn't fix it tho. I have a family member who is borderline computer genius. I hate to ask him for favors since he loves to rub it in my face if you know what I mean... But he said what he learned in process of fixing mine he can fix any bricked android there is now. He said something about needing the CPU ID number and other stuff that I didn't have . But it is now working again and back to HC 3.2.1. Not sure it was worth the bother, will find out if they ever fix ICS. I can't believe all the excitement of Jellybean with al the fixes still needed in ICS. I'll stal away from both till they get the bugs out. Thanks for all the help Mrhelper.
 
dbldipp said:
Well..... Got home early this week so decided to try to tackle the problem head on. Was going to just root it but got lost in the instructions. So after downloading 3 different roms I set off to take it back... NOT!!!!!
I tried every combonation known to man to do a go back, power volume up, power volume down, up with screen lok rocking, you name it... Didn't go back, didn't even do a factory resxet. It jusat cleaned the cache and cleared to settings. But it didn't go back. Guess they really meant it when they said once you have ICS that there's no going back. I'm gonna mess with it more later this weeke end, Have to head out Sunday afternoon, so need to do something here. I deactivated my CoPilot till I figure this out.
Click to expand...

I found that getting root was simple once you get all your ducks in a row. The problem I had was none of the rooting instructions mentioned any ducks let alone how to get them in a row in the proper order. I just kept plugging away, trying various combinations of things and suddenly I had it. I'm sorry I didn't write down which ducks you need or what order you need them in as I wasn't sure what did what. I do know that I wasted an afternoon getting there.
 
Now that I've been back to HC 3.2.1 I realize how nice ICS was and miss it. My go back was sucessful but I'm haveing issues with HC now and would rather have the ICS if Mrhelper could tell mne how to write the script I need to delete the files about once a day that fill up my drivew.
I realize how good ICS worked but in my case it had it's draw backs.
My tablet keeps wanting me to do the ICS update and boy am I tempted... but... I can't go back to ICS till we get the hidden files deleted like they should be. Any thoughts from you Mrhelper please?
 
Considering how you use your tablet, I'm curious why you are again considering accepting the risk of ICS problems. I was very happy with my tablet on HC, and still do not understand what all the excitement for ICS was all about. When it gets right down to core functionality, the two are nearly identical. I have not found anything of high value that I can do with ICS that I could not already do with HC, and HC was significantly more stable.

If there is some HC problem you are seeing that you would like to work on, I still have an a100 around here on HC that I can use as a reference if needed... one that I knew better than to upgrade because my wife does not like working around bugs. She despises Windows products for that very reason. I also have close friends who have deferred the update for similar reasons. They chose to wait and still have not yet updated. When you consider the various bugs and stability issues with ICS, HC is still a much better choice for a lot of users.

#####################
If you still want to go back to ICS now.... I've attached a script to this post that will delete the problem files from an a500/a200/a100. You may recall though that the only way to access the files is by using root privilege. That means the tablet would have to be rooted to use the script.

If you (or anyone else reading this) decides to use the script, then you need to prepare the tools by doing the following:

1.) Install this terminal app: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=jackpal.androidterm&hl=en

2.) Download the clean_gps.sh.txt script file to the Download folder

################################################
Then, whenever you see a need to clean out the files, you can do this:

1.) Open the terminal app

2.) Type: su <and hit Enter>
(grant root privilege to the terminal if prompted)

3.) Type: sh /sdcard/Download/clean_gps.sh.txt <and hit Enter>
(The script will print a message for every delete, wait for completion)

4.) Type: exit <and hit enter>
(this will exit "su")

5.) Type: exit <and hit Enter>
(this will close the terminal app)
 

Attachments

Main reason I'm contemplating going back to ICS was that my map program wAs ac tually more stable and worked better. With HC it locks up and can't be released with any app killer. So I either have to wait till it asks me if I want to kill the program or hope it unlocks itself (N never has so far). If I just drop it into the hidden mode it still stays locked, and won't respond to touch or anything else. So I basicly have to reboot the system. I didn't have that particular problem with ICS.
So now I have to decide if I want to go through the hastle of rooting and going in and deleting files every couple of days. Wouldn't it be sweet if Acer would do a patch to fix the problem?
I think Acer only cares about the money we spend with them and once the warantee runs out they give a S_t about us. They won'y see any of my cash again. I'll buy Android again but not Acer. Thank you for the help Mrhelper.
 
I'm doing the update to ICS right now, since Hrhelper was so kind as to give me the script I needed to to be able to run ICS. My son in law is going to do a bit of dabling with ICS and try to make an app that will give temperary Root and also trying to see if there is a way that he can write an app that can do the Root and delete the offending files. He has not got a much time as he might need to do it but if and when he does, I'll post his results. Thanks for all the help you give everyone Mrhelper.
 
Finished my ICS update. Went much smoother than the first try. Everything works the way it should. No hang ups or flashing apps or any of that. BUT.. there are a few differences from the first install I did with ICS. I the rooted my tablet anf followed all the instructions to the T. Wifi won't connect to my home but will to my wifi card. When I go into ES file browser I don't see any of the folders or files I should see, just the same stuff I see as if it weren't rooted. I installed the terminal emulator and tried to run the script. says no such file or directory. I am following your instructions to the letter but no luck. I can't find the file for the text files to delete them by hand. So now where do I go?
Please help me here Mrhelper..
 
Last Thursday I has the delightful experience of being on the phone with Acer support for 3 hours. What a bunch of dummies... I got the normal tech support that doesn't speak English and argued with them for an hour before I finally told them I wanted a supervisor... another looser... After another hour of getting nowhere, I asked for his supervisor and finally got a tech support level 2 in Texas. I explained our situation with the GPS Text file building up. They had no idea what I was refering to. So I gave them links to this news group and tese posts. The guy put me on hold for a few mi nuets and when he came back it was like a light went off... He said he had no idea there was such a wide spread problem and didn't know if there was a fix down the road. But he said he would let the powers that be know of the situation and see where it goes from there. Acer doesn't actuall do any programing on the Android OS. They send in the specs to Google who compiles the OS and sends it out to the consumer. Acer supposedly does test the OS before release but has nothing to do with the actual OS production.
So we'll see if they do anything with what I told them. 3 hours to get to someone who actually sounded like he cared!
 
The script did not actually run when you tried it, because I had typed the wrong script name in the procedure. You probably did everything right, but the procedure contained an error. That's a problem with testing your own procedures, because you know how they should be written in spite of how they sometimes _are_ written.

The script should work. I tested it on my device and it deleted the files. Chances are the su on the terminal did work (if you granted it root privilege) and the script file name was just wrong. The file that could not be found was the script. I found a typo in the procedure above. The script file is named clean_gps.sh.txt. When I typed the procedure originally, I had mistakenly named the file clear_gps.sh.txt. I fixed that today by changing the procedure above to match the script file name. Sorry about that.

If you cannot see the files with the file explorer, that's likely because you have not actually granted root privilege to the file explorer.

When you type the "su" command in the terminal, the superuser app should notify you of the request for root privilege, and you must allow it. The same is true for ES File Explorer. In that app, you must go into settings and turn on the "root explorer" option and then allow the privilege when prompted. That allows you to access any/all directories and files on the system.

You should then run Superuser when done with whatever "root" work you were doing, and revoke those privileges to prevent problems.
 
Mrhelper said:
The script did not actually run when you tried it, because I had typed the wrong script name in the procedure. You probably did everything right, but the procedure contained an error. That's a problem with testing your own procedures, because you know how they should be written in spite of how they sometimes _are_ written.

The script should work. I tested it on my device and it deleted the files. Chances are the su on the terminal did work (if you granted it root privilege) and the script file name was just wrong. The file that could not be found was the script. I found a typo in the procedure above. The script file is named clean_gps.sh.txt. When I typed the procedure originally, I had mistakenly named the file clear_gps.sh.txt. I fixed that today by changing the procedure above to match the script file name. Sorry about that.

If you cannot see the files with the file explorer, that's likely because you have not actually granted root privilege to the file explorer.

When you type the "su" command in the terminal, the superuser app should notify you of the request for root privilege, and you must allow it. The same is true for ES File Explorer. In that app, you must go into settings and turn on the "root explorer" option and then allow the privilege when prompted. That allows you to access any/all directories and files on the system.

You should then run Superuser when done with whatever "root" work you were doing, and revoke those privileges to prevent problems.
Click to expand...

Followed you instructions and the files were deleted. I did notice it doesn't remove all of them at once. Aparently you made it so some stayed there for next use. But that's ok, my drive won't be filling up any more. Thank You Mrhelper!!!
Now, I couldn't find any setting to go into on my ES File Explorer, so if you can give me spacifics on how to do that it would be appreciated. I also have ADTRO file manager installed, but can't seem to view files on it the way it does on ES. Any thoughts you may have will be welcomed. Thank you... !!!
 
To enable root privilege in ES File Explorer:
* open ES File Explorer
* near the lower left corner of the screen, select the fourth button from the left (three vertical dots)
* look toward the right on the options bar along the bottom, and select Settings
* scroll down and set the Root Explorer check box. Leave the Mount File system option unchecked. Leaving that off prevents the file explorer from mounting /system as writable, which in turn protects the system from mistakes. The GPS files and apps are not under /system anyway, they are all under /data.
* accept the warning pop-up, and then allow the Superuser pop-up (quickly, before it times out)

After you've successfully granted root privilege to the file explorer, you can view and/or change nearly anything.

When you are done using root privilege with any app, it's always important to revoke the privilege immediately to prevent accidental damage to root protected files.



dbldipp said:
Followed your instructions and the files were deleted. I did notice it doesn't remove all of them at once. Apparently you made it so some stayed there for next use. But that's ok, my drive won't be filling up any more. ...
Click to expand...
If the GPS is running at the time, any file being written by the driver will be locked, and so cannot be deleted until unlocked.
To remove all of the .txt files, you would have to first turn off the GPS. There is apparently no need to do that though, as you have already observed.
 
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