Avast WEBforum
Consumer Products => Avast Mobile Security for Android => Avast Mobile Security => Beta => Topic started by: cooby on December 07, 2011, 11:48:18 PM
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Toshiba Thrive AT105/16 (Uses Wi-Fi)
Rooted and this Android 3.2 ROM (very close to the stock ROM):
http://www.thriveforums.org/forum/dalepl/5071-rom-dalenet-htk55d-31-5-0002-oom-rooted-rom-us-hc-3-2-1-a.html
Avast mobile beta v 1.0.1006 is on. It's so great to see the Avast shortcut and the little icon.
Initial observations and questions:
1. You forgot to tell to reboot after installation, so all it did was telling me "scanning apps" and for 10min 0%
2. Fast scan with an option to enable disable the SD card scan is great.
2a. But how it reached 125% is beyond me.
2b. It is not clear to me WHAT SD card. Their internal memory is called SD card. Under Android 3.1, external SD card was under the SD card. In Android 3.2 it finally got a clearer name, SDcard2 (and has to have read & write priviliges). Perhaps Avast could either specify the exact path or clarify if it's the external card being scanned.
2c. USB flash (in android 3.2 it's called usb storage-x where x=0, 1,2,3 for harddrives etc) - I think Avast does not see it
3. Will Avast see some windows malware that an android appplication or browsing may pick up, and therefore be able to infect Windows which so easily connects to the Thrive
4. No help file. I have no idea what to do with those 3 little icons on the firewall tab. Avast got superuser access.
Just in case it's important what state this tablet was when I put in Avast:
I uninstalled previous AV, AdFree, Permissions denied and Fix permissions, and aSpotCat to eliminate possible conflicts/overlap.
Whether these are clean uninstallations I don't really know.
I stopped OS Monitor from running at startup for now. Just in case.
(Edited thread title 2x)
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Hello,
As far as I know, supported versions are 2.1-2.3, not including tablets nor ICS phones, but seems to work in both cases though.
Anyways, as it's not supported, I guess the Avast! Team didn't think of those situations that only affect a Tablet like the Thrive, so it's not rare for me to see such issues :P
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I know it's unofficial and not supported.
But according to post#18 by hayc59, and post#21 by vlk,indicates is ok to try and report, which I've done
http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=313614
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That is correct, reports even from unsupported devices are very valuable and useful for us, even though we might not focus on fixing them right now if the problems look too tablet/ICS specific. So thanks for the report!
Filip
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My intentions weren't to tell him to not to report but to be patient or something like that, I know that he HAS to report, just saying he shouldn't be surprised.
Sorry for my intromision :P Just trying to be of help.
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Could somebody, please, answer me at least about item #4 in my original post. TIA.
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4. No help file. I have no idea what to do with those 3 little icons on the firewall tab. Avast got superuser access.
Selecting an icon means blocking the application access when respective conditions are met.
The icons mean:
1) Wi-Fi connection
2) Mobile connection
3) Roaming
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Thank you very much. That's what I was beginning to think. Since everything works nice and smooth unimpeded by any blocks which I plan to do now :)
So I'd like to propose two small changes:
1. Checkmark normally means allow. How about change it to a big red X over the icon to tell users like me that application is being blocked.
2. During the installation, should Avast detect that a device is or is not a phone, and automatically disable the Mobile and Roaming options. I don't know what the implication of this proposal would be for people who use "tethering" which, I believe, allows them to use to phone on the Thrive and similar Wi-Fi only tablets.
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1. Checkmark normally means allow. How about change it to a big red X over the icon to tell users like me that application is being blocked.
Since the first line in the application list says "Block All Apps", it is pretty obvious that by checking an icon, you want to block stuff (at least it's obvious to me :)).
2. During the installation, should Avast detect that a device is or is not a phone, and automatically disable the Mobile and Roaming options. I don't know what the implication of this proposal would be for people who use "tethering" which, I believe, allows them to use to phone on the Thrive and similar Wi-Fi only tablets.
Since there are tablets running on 2.x versions of Android and there are tablets with SIM card support, I don't see a fast and easy way to determine which options should be hidden right now (this doesn't mean there isn't one of course).
Filip
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#2 - ok
#1 - now I'm confused. Yes, there is a Block All first line. Its 3 icons are identical to the applications. Not being sure what it all means, I tapped the Block all line. It did nothing. I suppose to Block all I should have done that checkmark you mentioned. So I will try that. But I think it is confusiing. Perhaps you could add a line of help to tell what to click to block or allow.
Thanks for answering :)
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I think the other way around would be confusing for the people that understand the current concept :) I don't think there is an easy way out of this.
I also think that sooner or later there will be some kind of FAQ or guide that will explain how to use certain features of the product and I hope it will solve all the confusion there is :)
Filip
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OK, Filip.
I think I finally see how it works.
Whether it's a feature or a bug, I cannot possibly tell, too new to the android things.
Selection of things I did, in chronological order:
1. I clicked the Wi-Fi icon in Block All, tried gmail, two browsers, market app, maps - they all happily ran and delivered new content perfectly. So that didn't work.
2. I unclicked Block All, and just clicked the icon for gmail, maps, one browser - they all worked perfectly, not on cached data, so clearly something is wrong.
3. I enabled the apps I just disabled in item 2, so they'd be in their default state (unchecked).
4. I clicked the icon under Block all once more
5. I rebooted. Success: maps, gmail, browser, market can't connect.
7. I repeated step 4 and 5 for few individual applications. Talking Tom and some other game can't connect for some related apps download because market won't connect. Ditto mail and others. Success. No going out to the web.
8. GOT IT. You have to reboot for the permissions to take effect. That maybe obvious to your android experts. Not obvious to a user like me.
Regarding your presentation. Let's agree to disagree on my idea of red X.
But one help line on that enormous, empty screen, would really, really help, especially the REBOOT thing.
I'm so happy I got Avast on board of this tablet!
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Hi cooby,
I have just been told that stock ROM doesn't need a restart to apply the changes, it seems to be a bug (or a feature) of your ROM. We do not officially support custom ROMs so we won't consider that as a bug on our side, but I'm glad it's working :)
Filip
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Filip,
That may well be under android under 3.2 and phones. Current android 3.2 required no-root due to google's DRM, AFAIK. Other tablets are affected by this as well.
Remember, I'm reporting on one tablet, android 3.2. In stock ROM permissions cannot be changed because that needs root.
My ROM looks custom. Because it added root rights. Other small changes had to do with smoother memory management and allowing write access to the SD card, which also was killed by the google DRM rights. It's very close to stock. Read the description in the link in my first post.
Added later:
From the creator of this rooted ROM
http://www.thriveforums.org/forum/toshiba-thrive-general-discussions/6025-ok-what-i-gather.html
All my ROMs are actually stock with only minor changes. Most of the pre-installed apps are moved to the user installed area. The OOM Rooted ROMs are the smoothest. I have optimized the out of memory settings and changed the app priorities to allow the screen scrolls to be smoother.
(end of the added section)
Also see this link, where reboot is mentioned:
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/control-permissions-applications-permissions-denied-android/
and run this and watch how Permissions Denied has to reboot:
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.stericson.permissions&hl=en
You must reboot before these changes take place and be aware that denying an app a permission that it is requesting may result in the app Force Closing.
I'm not saying it's a bug. But a line about "you must now reboot" would be helpful in the FIREWALL section. Otherwise changing those icons might give one a false sense of security, and puzzlement in my case :)
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This thread about ROMS, reply #4 was helpful - thanks. Now I understand why you mentioned Custom ROMs here.
http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=90315.0
In addition to stuff I mentioned in the first post, the only thing I wish for islogs like in windows. Logs mentioned here as well:
http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=90275.0
That said, I updated to 1.0.1069 and it is working nicely here since yesterday. VDF has 296 definitions, websites look checked, files and apps are scanned as they come in, no battery drain, good stuff so far.
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Hi,
Maybe we should say that we're not currently supporting custom ROMs because we give a higher priority to stock ROMs. But then we'll support as much custom ROMs as possible with respect to their popularity. I understand that if we're shipping rooted-only features then we should support custom ROMs which are sometimes the only way how to make a device rooted.
Jan
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Cooby, we have made some small adjustments to the next beta refresh that actually might remove the need to restart the tablet for the firewall changes to apply (no promises though).
Can you, please, try it after the next beta refresh arrives? :)
Filip
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.1123 beta since yesterday.
1) Firewall no longer requires a reboot when change settings. Works fine in blocking of things I tested on, but see 4) below.
2) On demand scan ran quickly. There was something on the screen about Time, but it just flashed so fast when the scan ended that it was not useful.
3) Question - am I correct that the Privacy screen is a read-only list of permission groups and not a permissions editor?
4) Now comes a long story:
One application that I used to test the firewall blocking was FING-Network Tools v1.25. It includes ping and tracert, handy for tests. Normally when i click its shortcut it does its job and then the service persists even when I exit it (all that existing in android is confusing to me really, but that's OT). Also normally, if, using the android Settings shortcut, I can force close Fing. It closes and all is well.
Less normal behavior occured with Avast in the picture. I blocked it the firewall and that worked. Tracert couldn't run, actually I could not even click its button. Soon after, a message (android's? avast's?) came up to wait, force close or report. I tapped force close. The screen went black and none of those triangles responded. I tapped the avast icon (a in the notification area) and immediately got the same message.
I had to reboot.
I wish we had logs, perhaps that would show what went wrong. (Mentioned here as well http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=90275.0)
I'm reporting it only because I have no clue whether this is a Fing issue, and avast issue or android.
Thanks for listening.
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1) Firewall no longer requires a reboot when change settings. Works fine in blocking of things I tested on, but see 4) below.
Great.
2) On demand scan ran quickly. There was something on the screen about Time, but it just flashed so fast when the scan ended that it was not useful.
What do you mean by that? The added line is to the "green result screen" if you are referring to the changelog of this beta refresh.
3) Question - am I correct that the Privacy screen is a read-only list of permission groups and not a permissions editor?
Correct.
4) Now comes a long story:
One application that I used to test the firewall blocking was FING-Network Tools v1.25. It includes ping and tracert, handy for tests. Normally when i click its shortcut it does its job and then the service persists even when I exit it (all that existing in android is confusing to me really, but that's OT). Also normally, if, using the android Settings shortcut, I can force close Fing. It closes and all is well.
Less normal behavior occured with Avast in the picture. I blocked it the firewall and that worked. Tracert couldn't run, actually I could not even click its button. Soon after, a message (android's? avast's?) came up to wait, force close or report. I tapped force close. The screen went black and none of those triangles responded. I tapped the avast icon (a in the notification area) and immediately got the same message.
I had to reboot.
I wish we had logs, perhaps that would show what went wrong. (Mentioned here as well http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=90275.0)
I'm reporting it only because I have no clue whether this is a Fing issue, and avast issue or android.
Thanks for listening.
This might be an issue with the FING application not expecting the connection could be blocked. If you encounter this again, try to send the report and we will see if something interesting arrives.
Filip
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Re 2) "What do you mean by that? The added line is to the "green result screen" if you are referring to the changelog of this beta refresh." - it was on the Virus scanner screen where Scan apps, Scan SD card and green Scan now is. During the scan was a progress bar and application count on the right, then on the left was something about time and that's what vanished.
Re 4) "If you encounter this again, try to send the report and we will see if something interesting arrives." Sure. I can reproduce. Just wasn't sure if to report. Will the developers tell us what they saw?
Edit: I can't reproduce item 4 today. Fing shows "unreachable" and 100% packet loss, then I clicked < and that up arrow and even the avast icon and I can't break it. Did I tell you I hate when computers make a fool of me?
BTW, thanks for the nice update and your answers.
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Re 2) Really? I didn't notice that! There should be two lines below the progress bar, number of object scanned and scan timer.
Re 4) We won't know if the exact report came from you, but we see all the reports users send us via the "Send report" dialog and if we can tell the problem was on our side, we will of course try to fix it.
Filip
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we were typing at the same time!
Yeah, I think there may well have been 2 lines. Happens too fast.
New item for today
5) I just installed something and did not see the Avast scanned... message. So I repeated. Same thing. Then I updated an application, also no feedback. Avast is running, but lack of feedback is a bit disconcerting for me. Has the feedback been removed in this 2nd beta? If so, I don't like it.
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Yes, it has. This will be changed in the future depending on the state of the notification icon checkbox in the settings. This change was made without me knowing it so sorry for any inconvenience caused.
Filip
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Ok, no problem, thanks.
Back to item 2) the disappearing 2 lines after a manual scan of just applications. Indeed the 2 lines exist: objects scanned and time. But I do not get a chance to see the great statistics, since upon reaching 100% or close to it, it immediately changes to red letters on gray about 1 problem found, a "!", a Resolve all line and Eicar. So how can I pause it to see?
New item
6) I realize it's beta and probably not frequent virus updates. But I'm still looking at Dec14 updates (111214-1) and here it's Dec16. Any problem here?
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Re 2) Once you resolve the Eicar, you will see it :) It's like that because if there is a malware on your device, it's the most important thing - statistics are not being shown until you resolve the problems.
Re 6) Seems like it, guys in the other thread confirm this as well.
Filip
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Re 2) - Hurray! Thanks Filip. All I had to do is deal with Eicar. Avast uninstalled it. That's ok. And the statistics are there plus that new (?) LOG button.
Re 6) yeah, I see the other thread. Thanks. Will see tomorrow.
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Re 2) No, the Log button was there from the beginning, were just your eyes playing tricks with you :)
Filip