Kurmudgeon’s guide to rooting and removing bloatware for Yinlips YDPG19

A great guide for those looking to declutter and root their YDPG 19 … thank you Kurmudgeon!

Yinlips YDPG19 - How I Rooted Mine and Removed the Bloat. USE AT YOUR OWN RISK!
« on: October 16, 2012, 04:48:54 AM »
I just received my Yinlips YDPG19 today.  Wow did this ship fast!  I had it in my hands after only ordering it 7 days ago.  Any way, as soon as I opened the box and got a charge on this thing, I did what I do best and started hacking away at it.  After a couple hours, I have it rooted and have all the apps installed that I want and many of the stock apps removed permanently.  If you want to know how I did everything, just read this quick guide below.

Note: I'm only providing this information so I can reference it later if I need to.  This worked perfectly for me, but if you mess up your own device, then Mr. Willgoo will get another sale when you re-buy one for yourself.  In other words, do this at your own risk, you alone are responsible for anything bad happening to your device.

This guide won't be for beginners.  From what I've seen by watching all the YouTube videos about the previous generation Yinlips devices, the ROM, Recovery Manager and software on this one is set up differently from the YDPG18, YDPG18A, etc.  Some of the notable differences I've found are as follows:

Cannot boot into recovery using the hardware keys.  I could only do this through ADB, but even then, the recovery manager was NOT very helpful.  (If you ever need to do this, just plug the device to your computer and run "adb reboot recovery".)
All of the emulators are hidden on this device and the GameManager program is a wrapper program containing all the binaries and associated files and libraries for these emulators.  Basically, this means I left it alone, so it's still there currently.  Later I'll probably back it up and try removing it to see if I need it for mapping buttons on the YDPG19.
The device is already rooted, but you won't be able to get access to the su binary pre-installed.  So you will have to hack like I did to take full control.  I tried installing the Superuser app, but it couldn't get privileges from the su binary.  Since this app couldn't, no other app could either.  The solution is simple though.
Oh yeah, one last thing difference.  From reading about the YDPG18 and YDPG18A, I was led to believe that those devices could not charge from USB and would only charge from the included power adapter.  Well, I can confirm that the YDPG19 does charge from USB; quite well actually.  I'm almost wondering why Yinlips even included the AC power adapter to begin with.

Prerequisites are as follows:

Knowledge of ADB and ADB or the Android SDK is already installed and ready to go (with the platform-tools folder).  ADB is quite simple.  If you want to continue and have never used ADB, Google the Android SDK and get it set up.  Then Google, "Android ADB" and get familiar with this awesome tool.
I have the path of the platform-tools folder added to my bash profile.  I'd recommend this if you are on Linux or with Windows you would add this folder to the environment path (right-click Computer, go to Properties, click on Advanced System Settings, click the Environment Variables button).  It's a quick Google search also.  This makes it so that you don't have to type the entire path to the adb or adb.exe file with each command like I do with my instructions below.
If you are using Windows, you will have to find a driver for use with ADB.  I'm sure this is a quick Google search as well.  If you are on Linux, you should be good with the Android SDK installed.
Go to this site: http://androidsu.com/superuser/ and download the current zipped su binary to your desktop.  The file will be named something similar to: "Superuser-3.1.3-arm-signed.zip" but the version may vary.  As of today, Oct. 15th, 2012, that is the file name to download.

Root Guide:

Let's first fix root so we can give permissions to our rooted apps.  My directions are for Linux, but if you are using Windows, the directions should be very similar.  The only real differences between my instructions for Linux and what you will need to do when on Windows are:
You will need to hunt down drivers so that ADB can recognize the device in Windows
All the paths specified will use the Windows path style (using '\' instead of '/')
Replace all occurances of 'adb' with 'adb.exe'.

Let's start at the desktop where you should have downloaded the zip file we need:
Code: [Select]
cd ~/Desktop

Extract the zip file you downloaded from androidsu.com like so:
Code: [Select]
unzip Superuser-3.1.3-arm-signed.zip

Now, let's organize and move the su binary you'll need to your desktop (note the period at the end):
Code: [Select]
mv system/bin/su .

Next we need to fix su on your android device, but first we need to remove your current su binary:  
Code: [Select]
adb shell

In adb:
Code: [Select]
rm /system/xbin/su
exit

We're back to the commandline in Linux (command prompt in Windows).  We are now going to push the new su binary to the correct location(s) and fix it's permissions:
Code: [Select]
adb push su /system/bin/
adb shell

In adb:
Code: [Select]
chmod 06755 /system/bin/su
ln -s /system/bin/su /system/xbin/su
exit

Lastly, reboot the device from the commandline in Linux:
Code: [Select]
adb reboot


Install Superuser App:

You have now successfully installed a su binary that Superuser app from the Play Store will work with properly.  So once you are back on the home screen in Android, fire up Google Play and install Superuser.  Start up Superuser and check if there are any updates to the binary.  It should say you have the current one.


Optional:

Replace Superuser with SuperSu:

On my Yinlips, I went further and installed SuperSu from the Play Store.  When I started up SuperSu, I gave it permissions with Superuser when prompted.  Then I closed SuperSu.  After that I revisited the Play Store and uninstalled Superuser.  SuperSu now handles all my root permission requests.  Afterwards, I rebooted the device.

Install ES File Explorer and Browse as root:

Now, I recommend ES File Explorer over RootExplorer.  Once you install ES File Explorer, go into the settings.  Under the root settings, give ES File Explorer root access and grant the permissions when prompted.

Perform Some Cleanup:

From here on out, you are free to install Titanium Backup if you want to remove programs.  I personally removed many of the unwanted programs manually using ES File Explorer or adb from the /system/apps folder.  The apps I removed myself include the following:

- AngryBirds-Space.apk
- BaiduInput.apk
- com.anifree.anipet.aquarium_zh.apk
- com.google.android.music.apk
- com.qiyi.video3.2.apk
- fruitninja_2.apk
- iReader_V1.5.0.1.apk
- jixianmotuo.apk
- Mobile_QQ_for_Pad1_1.91.apk
- WowFish.apk

While some of these apps were free with the device, we all know they were pirated.  Not that I have an issue with pirating necessarily, but with these being pirated, they will never get updates.  I already had most of these purchased for my Galaxy Nexus, so I just reinstalled the ones I had onto my Yinlips

Remove the GaGa Media Player app Permanently!:

Next I went to Settings --> Applications and uninstalled all the apps I was able to.  To get rid of the GaGa media player app, after uninstalling it from within Settings, I fired up ES File Explorer and navigated to /vendor/extra.  For some reason whenever you uninstall the GaGa media player app, it reinstalls after a reboot.  Well, remove it from /vendor/extra and it won't any more.

Hope this helps someone else with the YDPG19 out!  Thanks Willgoo for all your help and quick responses to my ordering questions!

Comments

  1. Hi, interesting this device... But i need to know about the buttons simultaneous, like R1+X, in Resident Evil 3, will work now?

    ReplyDelete

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