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Root device

J

Jamesy281

Lurker
Hi There,

My girlfriend has been given a Binatine Kidzstar tablet. I believe it runs jellybean and has a custom front end with menus, apps, games, etc.

It's for her older son so the interface is a bit childish for him. I would like to root the device to disable the interface from starting or just remove it and let it run as a normal tablet.

Can I just use standard tools for doing this or will I need a specific package?
any help on this would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance.
 
Hi Jamesy, and welcome to AF :)

Rooting is usually specific to the device. There have been a few tools that have advertised themselves as "universal", but in practice they have still only worked on certain devices and certain Android versions (usually much older versions than you have). So that bit is going to be tricky.

But if you can install a "launcher" app that should hide the interface. I'm guessing this won't come with the Google Play Store, but if you can install that, or the Amazon app store (download from the Amazon web site), or download one from AppBrain via a web browser (with an account there, if you can't use the Play Store) then you should be able to choose a more conventional launcher (Nova, Apex etc) and hopefully use that in place of the current front end.

I know nothing about how this machine is set up, but if you could root it I'd caution against simply removing the interface. That may well just be another launcher app, but it is probably the only launcher installed, so if you just remove it then rather than revert to stock Android you may find yourself with no launcher at all. So I'd say that getting a different launcher installed is the first thing to try.
 
Hadron,

Many thanks for the speedy reply and information. I will try the easy method first of installing an alternative launcher.
 
Welcome to the forums, Jamesy281!
In addition to what Hadron suggested, you can always (or should be able to) disable those apps you don't like. If you go into Settings - Apps - and choose the one you don't want to show up, you can disable them. Don't worry about if you want to enable them in the future, it's quite easy to do.
 
Thanks breadnatty08,

I can get into the parental controls and see an app called launcher. I'm not sure if that is the interface that loads at start up but even if it were the disable button is greyed out.
I was going to use something like SRSRoot to gain admin access without having to flash the rom to see if that would work.
 
If that is the interface, disabling it without an alternative could cause problems - you might be unable to do anything else without factory resetting the device.

If it works like a standard Android device, installing a second launcher then pressing the home button will give you a choice of which launcher you use (and you can change the preference permanently or temporarily, and you can always undo it via the settings).
 
I managed to disable the interface just within the settings. there is a parental control option which takes me into the device without the interface and allows configuration as normal. I selected the option to set parent mode as default so it no longer launches. gladly I didn't have to make any major changes or hack around.

There is one problem though I went on to Google play to download an app but it says the device is not recognised. is there a way around this as I would like to be used just as a normal tablet?
 
Guys,

I have managed a work around by enabled unknown sources and using Amazon apps for android.
Thanks again for you help. it was much appreciated.
 
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