Torchlight: "android:installLocation" manifest attribute

If we look at the Android application info on device with Android 2.2 and above there is button which will have label Move to SD card or Move to phone and in some cases this button is disabled with label Move to SD card.

This button is controlled by android:installLocation manifest attribute.

There are different values to this attribute:

1. internalOnly (default value):
   If the value is such then the application must be installed on the internal device storage only and it will never be installed on the external storage. If the internal storage is full, then the system will not install the application. This is when button in application info is disabled with label Move to SD card.
2. auto:
   If the value is such then the system will install the application on the internal storage by default. If the internal storage is full, then the system will install it on the external storage.
3. preferExternal:
   If the value is such then the application prefers to be installed on the external storage. There is no guarantee this as application might be installed on internal storage if the external media is unavailable or full.

In both of the auto and preferExternal user can move the application to either internal or external storage through Move to SD card or Move to phone on application info screen.

In case of app installed on external storage  only .apk file is saved on the external storage, but all private user data, databases, optimized .dex files, and extracted native code are saved on the internal device memory.

Caution should be taken while declaring app to be installation on external storage as whenever external storage get unmounts or removed, the application get killed and becomes unavailable for user. If in the application, below services are to be used then value should be set to internalOnly:

• Services
• Alarm Services
• Input Method Engines  
• Live Wallpapers
• App Widgets
• Account Managers
• Sync Adapters
• Device Administrators
• Broadcast Receivers listening for "boot completed"

Hacking Android - Part 2

If you have got your phone bricked where your Galaxy Y is getting stuck to the Samsung logo and phone is restarting again and again after displaying Samsung logo after few seconds and your recovery console is also not coming then i would say that you have HARD BRICKED your phone and now its the time you start reading the below steps to UN-BRICK it.

The technique i will be explaining for Unbricking the phone applies to Samsung phones and this method will flash Samsung stock ROM via tool named ODIN. Since ODIN is a windows os based tool, this method will only work in Windows OS.

Pre-requisite before you proceed with the below steps:

1. Install Samsung Kies from Samsung website or from the cd obtained with your device.
2. Install Samsung android drivers for your Windows OS
3. In the device Go to Settings --> Applications --> Developer options and enable USB Debugging by clicking on the checkbox and turning it green
4. Install ODIN by downloading from link

So, to un-brick your phone follow the below steps:

1. Download the stock ROM from XDA Forum after checking the kernel version from
   Settings --> About phone --> Kernel version
2. Extract the downloaded file into a folder on your Windows PC.
3. If you are running Kies, Stop it and kill all its processes.
4. If you are an Android developer or have Android SDK installed on your Windows PC, then stop all ADB (Android debug bridge) processes.
5. Shutdown your device
6. Now, by pressing Volume Down+Home Key, press Power key. This will boot the device in Download mode.
7. When in download mode follow the instructions to continue and this will show the download screen (You can notice ODIN written on top left of phone screen in Galaxy Y).
8. Connect your phone to the PC and start ODIN. 
9. The ID:Com section in ODIN will turn yellow. If it doesn't then the device drivers are not installed properly.
10. If you notice the yellow color in above step then click on PDA and browse to the folder created in Step 2 above.
11. In the PDA section, select the file whose name has "PDA" in it. Click on Phone and select the file whose name has either PHONE or MODEM in it. Click on CSC and select the file whose name has CSC in it.
12. Do leave PIT and BOOT empty
13. Now, click on the Start button and this will start the flashing process of the Stock ROM.
14. When the Flashing process is complete, you can notice PASS written in ODIN on a green background in your PC.

This will make your device just like new. If you are still stuck on the Samsung logo after following above steps then most probably you have selected the wrong ROM. So, download the correct ROM and run the steps mentioned again.

I hope this helps un-bricking your device.

Stay Good and Stay Lovely !!