Joggler KitKat 4.4.2 beta (24/3/14)

[bally3]

Nearly 2015 and Joggler development still going strong I see!

Can anyone tell me if there's any noticeable performance differences in kitkat from ics since kitkat was meant to run smoother on older devices?

Thanks

[jimeney]

Re this Android image. It works first time I boot, but every time I shut down or power the joggler down, it will not boot it again. Sticks on the animated 'android' boot screen. Tried 2 diff usb sticks and different ways to shutdown (using 'power off' option, using sync/shutdown in cli), still no joy. This makes it unusable for me which is a shame cos it basically does everything else I need.

Anyone else seeing that?

This happens with me too. I've reflashed but still no success beyond the first boot. Play store & root seem OK although I did notice the wifi connection dropped a couple of times. I wonder what the problem might be?

I can vouch for this, although it doesn't always die after first boot, but invevitable, after a few, it will. It seems quite fast and responsive, the USB stick being the bottleneck, it runs better on a faster USB key.

[pete]

I installed it on a USB SSD stick. It ran pretty good but only survived 3 reboots then hung on the Android boot screen.

[bally3]

same here.

disappointing as it runs quite fast.

i added a swap file using swapper app that speeded it up even more.

hopefully the boot problem will get resolved but a good effort overall.

[Robert]

I am also experiencing a stuck screen on the animated android logo. It usually happens after 3 reboots for me.

This would be a perfect setup if this could be remedied.

Has anyone figured out why this is happening?

[gegs]

Related to dwl's query here http://www.jogglerwiki.com/forum/viewto ... 206#p24080 I now have two Jogglers running Kitkat that survive reboots. Here's how I did it and I hope it works for you:

1) I formatted an 8gb Sandisk Cruzer Blade USB stick
2) I downloaded the most recent image from this page http://www.familie-kirchhofer.de/android/
3) I burnt the image to the stick using Win32DiskImager
4) I booted into Android on the Joggler
5) I pulled the power lead from the Joggler whilst Android was running and rebooted, which worked
6) I pulled the lead and plugged it in several times to make sure that the 2nd reboot wasn't a fluke
7) I resized the final partition to almost fill the USB stick using Gparted (leaving around 150mb at the end, just a habit)
8) I rebooted the stick on the Joggler, which worked
9) I rebooted a couple more times to make sure
10) Then AND ONLY THEN, did I go to Settings and set up my wi-fi and Google account
11) I installed a few apps
12) I rebooted a couple of times to test

I now have two Jogglers running Kitkat that survive reboots; one of them even survived a momentary power outage today.

IMPORTANT (maybe): All my reboots were hard reboots; I pulled the lead on a running Android install. Soft reboots with a proper shutdown have always failed to reboot for me. I may have fixed this shutdown problem with the above jiggery-pokery but I don't want to chance it.

[dwl99]

Thanks for this! Does your Kitkat Joggler survive any soft reboots now? And when can we expect Lollipop?

[gegs]

Don't want to chance the soft reboots just yet. I'm a bit fed up with re-imaging and resizing.

I've just been up in my son's room replacing his "don't ever switch it off" Joggler with a stick that has already survived about a dozen hard reboots.

[dwl99]

My Android Joggler gets turned off every night and I have a visceral aversion to pulling the plug to turn it off so I think I'll stick with my trusty ICS build. I've just installed Lollipop 5.1 (CM12.1) on my LG Gpad and am mighty impressed with the interface. Hopefully Herr Kirchhofer will come up with something soon!

[gegs]

Well it looks like my suspicions were correct. The soft boot is screwing up the boot process in Android Kitkat. I tried to soft boot my kitchen Joggler and it is now stuck on the Android splash screen. This is the same install that survived a total power outage yesterday (everything in the house went off for around 4 or 5 seconds.)

Thankfully, I've made an image of this stick and can write a new copy without having to set up my Google account and install everything again.

[gegs]

My Android Joggler gets turned off every night and I have a visceral aversion to pulling the plug to turn it off so I think I'll stick with my trusty ICS build.

Yep, further tests show that the only way to guarantee (!!!?) a Kitkat reboot is a hard reset, i.e. cut the power. Switching off at the wall might be a less drastic way to cut the power than pulling the lead from the device. I'd imagine there's less risk of sparks or arcing (but I know diddly about electronics - and those who do are probably laughing at me now.)

I quite like ICS on the Joggler but the interface was a bit troublesome. Too many display glitches annoyed me but Kitkat is beautiful on the Joggler. It's a pity I can't install Netflix though, it would have been great to use it with Chromecast.

[dwl99]

What display glitches do you have? I had a few at the start but fixed them by binning the stock launcher & using Nova Launcher. It's now a very stable & reliable installation. The only glitch I'm left with is the formatting for desktop wallpaper is a bit funny but solved by using an abstract patterned wallpaper.

[gegs]

Moving app icons and they whizz off the top of the screen when I try to place them, for example. The interface appears to be bigger than the visible area. I'll try it with Nova Launcher to see if I prefer ICS to Kitkat.

EDIT: one thing that's better about Kitkat is that resizing the data partition gives all that space to the Android system. Doesn't appear to be a separate 'SD card' storage area.

[dwl99]

Yes, I seem to remember the oddly-placed app icons on the desktop. Completely fixed with Nova Launcher & I just removed the stock launcher with Titanium Backup. And one or two other useless system apps besides.

[gegs]

ICS is more usable with an alternative launcher but I still find KitKat a more satisfying experience. There is better use of screen architecture and it feels like a pukka Android device, not a hack. Pity about the shutdown problem though.

EDIT: I revise my opinion a little about the difference between ICS and KitKat on the Joggler. KitKat runs better from the start but, with a change to Nova Launcher and some tweaking of the interface, ICS looks pretty good too. I wasn't aware there was a dock on Nova Launcher until I played around with the settings and now the screen is better utilised. Changing the padding between icons and altering the number of columns and rows makes it look pretty slick.

I still (slightly) prefer KitKat but might stick with ICS for one app. There's a great Edinburgh Bus Tracker app that works on ICS but doesn't appear in the Play Store on KitKat. Bummer!

[gegs]

I'm back to KitKat again, pity there's no Edinburgh Bus Tracker in the Play Store for it

I'm using Joggler KitKat as a controller for Chromecast because BBC iPlayer on ICS doesn't work properly. I can't select items from the top menu in iPlayer on ICS. For example, if I choose 'Categories' the default item is 'Art' and if I select 'Documentaries' it doesn't leave the Art listings. The same happens if I choose 'Channels'; I can't progress past BBC 1.

Not all video apps work with KitKat on Android, e.g. Netflix and Now TV can't be installed due to incompatible device messages in Play Store. However, some work really well, with particular kudos to Mubi and iPlayer. Other video apps that work are Viewster (sideways), SnagFilms, Red Bull TV, YouTube, Google Play Movies and Plex. There may be others but those are the only ones I have installed.

[hawsey]

Erm are you saying those video apps are working ok on the Joggler on Kit Kat ? Or just for casting purposes ?
I thought video just didn't work well on Android on the Joggler .

[gegs]

The video only works through Chromecast.

YouTube is worth installing without a Chromecast though, because you can set up music playlists and there's lots of music that isn't on Spotify. The video stutters but the music plays well.

[hawsey]

Ahh I see now gegs I tried YouTube on joggler Android once but never thought that the audio would be fine , time to try again :-:

[gegs]

A lot of the music tracks on YouTube just have still image slideshows (or even a single image) to accompany the track anyway. YouTube is rubbish on Android for cat videos but pretty competent as a music player. If you've already created playlists in YouTube on your computer or tablet, just log in on Android and they'll be there.

Music seems to be a big focus for YouTube. When I ran the app for the first time, a screen popped up telling me how to access music content quickly; it now has a separate menu.