I'm looking for a way to dump raw data from an entire phone or at least the sda block to a PC, using a method other than adb pull.

When I run adb pull /dev/block/sda sdaDump.img, it creates a dump file. To find what I need, I have to search through this raw data using a Hex Editor. If the dump comes from a fully functioning phone, I can usually find what I’m looking for because all the data is still intact.

However, I accidentally wiped the metadata partition on my phone, so the decryption keys/files are gone. Now, because of that, some folders appear empty when checked with TWRP's File Manager, even though the actual files are still there.

If I create a dump now, the raw data in the file won't be the same as when the metadata was present, and those folders weren't showing as empty.

Running adb pull /dev/block/sda sdaDump.img now results in a dump where the Hex Editor shows zeroes (no data) where these files should be.

Is there any alternative method to create a raw data dump of the sda block or entire phone storage, that will capture that data as it is (not empty folders, but the data in them), even if it's encrypted?

I don't want to create the raw data dump onto the phone storage and then transfer it to a PC, but something that works like adb pull, in the sense that it pulls the data from the phone directly onto a PC.

Thanks a lot in advance to everyone!

I need to ask a small favor from the good people of Lemmy.ml Community.

In short, I accidentally wiped the metadata partition on my Poco F3 and now I can't boot into the OS and access my data. I have a lot of pictures, videos and other stuff that I would hate to lose, because of a mistake. But all that is still on the phone, I just can't boot the phone to access it.

Thankfully, there is a way to fix this by creating a full backup of the phone with adb, then using a HEX Editor to manually look through that gigantic file and try to find the files that were in that metadata partition.

A huge thanks to bluet33th, a user from XDA Forums, without whom I would be helpless and couldn't do any of this. It might be a bit complicated and manual process, but it is possible. He explained everything in great detail here, so check it out, especially if you are facing the same problem, this will help you tremendously: https://xdaforums.com/t/how-to-recover-data-if-metadata-partition-was-deleted.4686789/

In order to find these files and put them back where they belong, I need your help, because I have to know their names, exact sizes and at least part of their content, so that I can search for it. Because I'm searching for a specific text in a text file that is 128 GB in size.

I have already tried this on another Xiaomi phone, to make sure this procedure works on Xiaomi phones and it does, but that phone had HyperOS with Android 14 and since every phone and android version is probably different, in order to be sure, I need this information specifically for Poco F3 with Android 13.

It doesn't take long, but if you don't have the time to look inside your metadata partition and tell me which files are inside of that partition and their sizes in bytes, you can just make a backup of the metadata partition and sent it to me, and I'll do the rest of the work.

Here are the steps on how to create a backup:

1. Turn on your phone and boot into TWRP, then connect your phone to a PC, type cmd inside Windows search and run cmd, then position cmd into your platform-tools folder (if you flashed your ROM, you should already have the necessary drivers installed for the next steps to work). For example, if your platform-tools folder on Windows is inside C:\platform-tools, all you need to type into cmd is: cd C:\platform-tools

You can also just go inside your platform-tools folder and type cmd in the address bar and the cmd will start already positioned inside that folder.

2. Then type adb devices and you should see your device, if you do, that means that all the drivers are successfully installed and your phone is detected.

3. Type adb pull /dev/block/by-name/metadata

4. After that, you should see a file named metadata inside C:\platform-tools. That is the file that I'm looking for and as you can see, it takes just a few minutes to get it.

You can skip the next steps (5 and 6), but I'll explain them, just in case someone wants to extract these files for themselves, so that you have them in case something like this happens to you. Of course, you can also proceed to extract the files and tell me their names and sizes.

Here is what you need to do:

5. Extract the content of the metadata file, you can use a software like 7-Zip. Go inside that extracted folder, then into vold > metadata_encryption > key

6. Inside of that key folder, you should see a few files. These are the important files and save them somewhere safe in case you ever need them. Since I don't have them anymore, in order to recreate them, I need to know their exact names and sizes in bytes. You can check the size of every individual file by right clicking on the file and choosing Properties. Then look under Size, not Size on disk, and in parenthesis, you should see the size in bytes.

Please, if you could check the size of every file and write down which file has what size. I would really appreciate it.

I'm specifically looking for someone who has a Poco F3 with Android 13 and MIUI, because I'm not sure if HyperOS changed something, so maybe the number of files or their size is different. But feel free to post the information even if you have HyperOS, but please mention that, so that I am aware of it.

Thanks a lot for your help, it really means a great deal.

(cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/19917523)

Basically, what the title says. Do you use any app, that is proprietary, but either has no OSS alternatives or they're all not good enough? If there is an alternative, what keeps you from switching?

Hello, I bought my first used phone (Xiaomi Redmi Note 13 Pro) and was wondering what are the best practices taken before using it. I've read the reviews of the merchant selling the phone, looked into ratings and asked some questions about the condition of the phone, so I'm sure of my purchase on that end.

What about after receiving the phone? I know I would run a factory reset, aside from that, is there anything else to do?

Across the world, the biggest smartphone manufacturers are Apple (28%), Samsung (24%), Xiaomi (12%), Oppo (6%) and Vivo (5%). However, there are geographic patterns in popularity, with Apple dominating North America, East Asia and Europe, while Samsung leads in South America, Africa and West Asia in addition to its home turf of South Korea. Xiaomi is the most popular phone brand across South Asia, Spain, Venezuela, Ukraine and Madagascar, while Tecno is popular in West and Central Africa. Oppo, Vivo and Huawei lead in Indonesia, Bhutan and Togo respectively.

Context: I have a Chromecast with Google TV today that I'm quite happy with, after having heavily customized the thing. However, it's only 1080, and I recently got a 4k TV and would like to be able to get the full mileage out of it.

Now that Google are sunsetting the Chromecast series, is it a bad idea to pick up a 4k Chromecast, or should I just wait for the new device to drop? It seems a bit pricier and I'm not sure if there are any features I should necessarily wait for.

My use-case is basically watching YouTube/Nebula/Netflix/Jellyfin.

How to move Search bar to top in KISS Launcher.
@android

In kiss launcher Search bar is at bottom and I want it to be at top of screen. It is not a option by default but I remember a fork implemented it.

Can anyone tell me that fork if they remember?

Today I opened the App Store on my GrapheneOS to see, that Accrescent is now mirrored it it.

I know, that GrapheneOS devs have addressed F-droid very negatively it the past (ant they still do that), but imo, including Accrescent as a part of official GOS App Store is very harmful for FLOSS movement, as Accrescent does not support any third-party repos, claiming that they are "breaking the Android security model", and also allows submitting closed-source apps to the repo.

This unlikely to be the reason for me to change OS, as GrapheneOS is still amazing, but devs rhetoric and actions become more and more concerning for me.

@android Any browser with working notifications (through unified push)

Do you know any FOSS browser for android with unified push support?

@android How to replace location services provided by google without root?
I want to disable google play services for obvious reasons. Ntfy is working fine for me so no issue with push notifications. But GPS is incredibly slow how to replace location functions provided by google (without root)?

Do you keep lists of your favorite things, such as movies, books, recipes, or music albums? You might keep list(s) that looks like this:

• Network (1976)
• Lone Star (1996)
• Devils (1971)
• The Seventh Seal (1957)
• ... Many more films

But how do you rank these?

You might be tempted to order them by preference, but this could quickly get overwhelming for long lists.

A much easier method is to use pairwise comparisons, which shows you single head-to-head pairs, and has you choose which one you like best.

After doing a small number of these matchups, Rank-My-Favs can confidently create a ranked list for you.

Under the hood, Rank-My-Favs uses the advanced Glicko rating system, to determine how many matches are necessary, and for ranking.

Features

• Import your existing lists quickly.
• Uses the advanced Glicko rating system.

Built With

• Android Jetpack Compose

Installation / Releases

• Releases
• IzzyOnDroid
• F-Droid
• Google Play

Support / Donate

Rank-My-Favs will always remain free, open-source software. We've seen many open-source projects go unmaintained after a few years. Recurring donations have proven to be the only way these projects can stay alive.

Your donations directly support full-time development, and help keep this maintained. If you find yourself using rank-my-favs every day, consider donating:

• Support me on Liberapay.
• Support me Patreon.

Crypto

• bitcoin: 1Hefs7miXS5ff5Ck5xvmjKjXf5242KzRtK
• ethereum: 0x400c96c96acbC6E7B3B43B1dc1BB446540a88A01
• monero: 41taVyY6e1xApqKyMVDRVxJ76sPkfZhALLTjRvVKpaAh2pBd4wv9RgYj1tSPrx8wc6iE1uWUfjtQdTmTy2FGMeChGVKPQuV

Social / Contact

• lemmy.ml/c/rankmyfavs
• Mastodon
• Matrix chat

Android 15 Beta 4 is available today as the preview cycle nears its end.

Hey all, so I used Blokada (5, I think) for a long time but then when they forced an upgrade I moved on to AdAway. AdAway is great, it's not perfect, but it gets the job done.

I decided to give ProtonVPN a try, due to recent state legislative website laws. I like it, it's cool but it doesn't block ads in the free version and AdAway can't run at the same time, afaik.

I've heard lots of people talking about how great FF with ublock is and I only recently switched back to Firefox so I'm considering giving that a try but I'm getting overwhelmed.

What is the right combination to block most ads as well pretending to be from another state?

Tested and it works well so far.

I have a Pixel 6 Pro (fully stock) who's wallpaper was migrated from an old S series Samsung. The wallpaper is a photo I took many years ago that I can't seem to find, so the wallpaper is the last remaining copy that I have. Where can I find the photo and/or how can I extract it so that I cam back it up?

cross-posted from: https://discuss.tchncs.de/post/18470641

Simple Xposed module to support the Belfius app on Rooted devices!

Source
https://github.com/Rikj000/Belfius-Root#belfius-root

License GPLv3

Motivation
Belfius bank was pretty cool about having a rooted device in the past,
they just threw a dismissible warning about security risks of using a rooted device,
and then allowed you to keep using their app.

However on 2024-07-01 this changed.
Nowadays they assume that you're an idiot that will not be able to keep your own device safe if you have root.

I do not agree with that assumption, and likely neither do you.
Only power users that have a good idea of what they're doing tend to root their own devices.

After only a hand full of transactions, done through the tedious browser process,
I grew agitated enough to do the research to write this module.

Hope you'll enjoy this module and the ability to stay rooted!

...so that the browser will open the desktop version of that particular site?

If there is a way of doing this in some other browser, I'd also be interested.

Samsung’s One UI Watch 6 beta is now available for the Galaxy Watch 5 and 4 series, moving beyond sole availability for the Watch 6.

I'm not seeing much on F-Droid, Play Store is... a mess of bullshit, as always.

cross-posted from: https://linux.community/post/1033120

on my last post I wrote device is a redmi 9c. Turns out it's a redmi 10c and the custom ROM I wanted to install https://xdaforums.com/t/rom-13-unofficial-lineageos-20-0-unified-for-redmi-9a-9c-10a-blossom.4609367/ won't work.

Anyhow, to unlock the device the official way I have to identify to their services through a phone line, not internet, and purchase a sim card, which I'm not going to do to experiment with this device.

I have no use for the stock software in the device and I'd rather have anything foss that works or kinda works.

If you ever experimented with this particular model or know what could work, feel free to post an answer.

debian 12.5

A good video to share with those who refuse to leave their bubble.