[4.1.0.23][XA2 h3113][Alien Dalvik] Android Gallery and Android multimedia files related bugs

Bug Reports
,
#1

REPRODUCIBILITY (% or how often): 100%
BUILD ID = 4.1.0.23
HARDWARE (XA2, Xperia 10…): Xperia XA2 h3113
UI LANGUAGE: Czech
REGRESSION: (compared to previous public release: Yes, No, ?): Yes

DESCRIPTION:

On XA2 (h3113 single sim), I do experience a problem with Android Gallery not showing pictures and videos and several Android apps do have a problem with (down/up)loading images/videos. Same goes for alternative Gallery apps.

PRECONDITIONS:

I only updated to Early access version from latest previous 4.0 build. Used this guide to resize home to 10 GB and root to 8 GB.

STEPS TO REPRODUCE:

  • when I try to open default Gallery via Nova Launcher, it does show blank black screen without any pictures
  • both image and file picker in Discord does not show anything (sharing file into app works)
  • trying to download image in Discord restarts the app without actually downloading it
  • in Frost (OSS wrapper for mobile Facebook site from F-Droid) downloading an image or video restarts the app
  • in Messenger Lite, image upload says “No app for image select found” (normal file select works, downloading an image works)
  • in Firefox when I try to download an image, app goes into restarting loop
  • in Kiwi browser (Chromium based), when I try to download an image, the app crashes
  • etc.

EXPECTED RESULT:

Images/videos do show everywhere and apps can download/upload them.

ACTUAL RESULT:

Apps do crash/show nothing.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

I tried to overcome this with an alternative - Blackberry Gallery, also with a Simple Gallery from F-Droid, but it does not work either (the app itself worked on Pie). On 4.0, everything worked as it is supposed to work. So, overcoming this, usually using “share” button depends on the app. (Solutions are included in steps to reproduce.)

I was able to overcome the downloading by sharing the image/video from almost any source into X-Plore File Manager first and then it worked, but, it is an overkill over just pressing one button…

2 Likes
#2

Removing /home/.android/ and rebooting somehow fixed the issue.

1 Like
Cannot share images etc to Signal but to WhatsAplp
#3

Hi - i have the same issue on a X10 Mark 1 - after upgrading to 4.1.0.24.
Android Apps don’t see any images in Gallery. So Telegram/Sailfish can’t see my new taken pictures.

Is there another possibility without removing all my android stuff?
Is this maybe just a permission thing?

Edit: it seems files on the Android level are not useable. File-Manager from Android can not create folders. Download in firefox is not possible.

1 Like
Android.process.media being killing causing media not downloaded and app crash
#4

An "chown -R media_rw:media_rw /home/nemo/android_storage/* seems to have fixxed it for me. But i also have no idea if this breaks other things - does anyone know how the permissions are on new installed devices?
Folders and files have been owned by “nemo:nemo” before.
I have no idea how this could affect the “Gallery” function in telegram/signal.

2 Likes
Some android apps have only partial or flawed gallery access on 4.1.0.24 (Kvarken)
#5

I’m having the same problem on an XA2. Changing permissions on android_storage didn’t help. Can’t see any Gallery images from Android apps like Signal.

Edit: ownership change fixed the problem after a reboot.

2 Likes
#6

having this exact problem. is there an official resolution yet?

permissions change + reboot did not work

#7

I do not have these problems on my XA2. But, mine is a new install, never updated before. yours seems older because of user nemo.
On my XA2 your change is the default. What ist now the directory itself? 770 oder 775? would be intressting to know.

root@Sail02:/home/defaultuser# ls -l | grep android
drwxrwx— 15 media_rw media_rw 4096 Jul 1 23:08 android_storage

#8

yes its an “old” X10 - should be around one year.
The folder is:
drwxrwx— 16 media_rw media_rw 4096 May 31 09:32 android_storage

but I cannot tell you if i did modify this - but i think i only changed the user and group

#9

Did you try changing user and owner with:

#10

Yes, using “defaultuser” rather than nemo, as that directory doesn’t exist (X10 Plus in my case)

#11

Screenshot_20210709_001
Screenshot_20210709_0011080×2520 612 KB

for reference.

#12

you could also try to delete your cache of the defaultuser.
$ rm -r /home/defaultuser/.cache/*
and reboot phone after this

#13

To be honest, I had no issue like this after the deletion of folder I already mentioned. But still have one major issue - both external and internal SD card for Android apps outside their respective “Android/data & obb” folders are readable only…

#14

will this mess with other configuration data? the first suggestion in the thread deletes all your android apps with no warning as to what it does

#15

It is not harmful in this way, but a “mess” could be, that your system is much slower for a while, to regenerate some files.

#16

will attempt and report back

#17

okay so:

deleting .cache did not work

permission change did not work

deleting .android also did nor work.

rebooted after each fix attempt

factory reset attempted out of desperation. nothing installed until fully upgraded OS. problem persists.

#18

Sorry to necro/repeat but i’ve tried a ton of stuff and still can’t get things working. No idea why a factory reset didn’t resolve the issue, but im at the end of my rope with this. Maybe it’s a problem with whatever the tracker equivalent in dalvik is, or with android permissions instead of file permissions? If I open android gallery i get this:

Screenshot_20210720_003
Screenshot_20210720_0031080×2520 24.4 KB

Could someone with it working again post the permission status of their android_storage folder and subfolders? What groups/users would be compatible with the aliendalvik 10 service in the first place?

If anyone here could pointe to some docs or resources on the subject or offer any other advice I’d really appreciate it.

UPDATE: yeah tried a second factory reset, and the apps can read from and write to android_storage again until I install and use either defender or MLS manager. After a reboot with those programs, it stops functioning.

1 Like
#19

Hello @tkoham, everyone,
was there a solution to the issue after all? I experience the same issue since the update to 4.1. My best hope was that 4.2 “magically heals” the issue again. I admit, that approach did not work out.
The installation on my device is kind of antique: it only has account “nemo”, but no defaultuser. So it might boil down to some changed ownership / permission thing.

#20

For me it seemed like an SD card issue.
I had the same symptoms, removed SD card, restarted Android and it began working. The SDcard in question was as incompatible as possible - cheap, vFAT formatted on ancient camera.

I suspect there is a setting somewhere “Use SDcard as primary storage” or similar.