I moved 8 posts to a new topic: How to uncheck “unknown sources” for F-Droid
Let’s see:
- Titanium backup (obvious)
- Xposed
- Gravity Box (I find the FP1 simply unusable without this, e.g. GPS)
- Xprivacy (obvious)
- Clean Master (when granted root access, can manage / disable autostart apps)
- ES File Explorer
Does GPS really improve that much with Gravity Box? Occasionally my phone also seems slow to get a GPS fix. Does that improve noticeably?
Are there any drawbacks to installing the Xposed framework (it is necessary for Gravity Box, isn’t it?).
As far as I understand it the Xposed installer itself does nothing, it’s just needed to install the modules. So there is no drawback.
Gravity Box has a fix if you have the problem that your location is sometimes calculated inaccurately although you have a GPS fix. It doesn’t help with the TTFF (time to first fix)
For more info see the gps guide
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It (Gravity Box) improves accuracy mostly, not speed of getting a fix. That is unfortunately still “hit or miss” sometimes. What I’ve found helps is: only try to get a fix when you have a reasonably clear view of the sky, and have the phone unplugged. The phone can be plugged in once you have a stable fix, and it will hold onto that fix reasonably well.
But Gravity Box has other nice features as well, like making the shortcut pull-down menu a little more useful.
Gravity Box indeed needs Xposed. There’s no downsides to Xposed in my opinion. Except that you do open a potential hole into the system. So you’d better know what you’re doing.
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Or like making the notification bar orange. 
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AFWall+ (permanent)
Autostarts - for getting rid of repeated searching for FP updates. Have also blocked autostart of a number of google services that I don’t use.
DiskUsage - for clearing internal storage before the unified partition update was available, don’t use it any longer
F-Droid
FP Updater (permanent) 
FasterGPS
FP1-EPO Update
Power Toggles (permanent) - a widget actually. Don’t know why it requires root access but it does, e.g. for enabling GPS
Shell Terminal
Xposed with GravityBox - for disabling 2nd SIM indicator, 360 degree screen rotation
X-plore - file manager
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Hi,
I use:
- AFWall+: To control witch App is allowed to acess the network. This can also be done by XPrivacy but AFWall is more confortable and allows to allow access for one network kind (for example WIFI) and disallow it for an other (Mobile, VPN etc.).
- Xposed with XPrivacy, GravatyBox and (still Testing) greenify: The XPosed Framework covers every Android System Call and allows its Plugins to control them. This makes it possible to change almost everything in your android System. This forces the system deeply but offers uncountable possibilitys. I use the Plugins: XPrivacy - Allows to detract Apprights. Sometimes by giving fake Data (if the App tries to identify your location a random location becomes returned) or just deny the access (an App wants to connect the Internet but is aways told that the phone is not connected). GravityBox - I installed this, because I wanted a transparent notification bar. I also tweaked some other optical things usig it. Greenify - sends selected Apps to a deep sleep while I don’t use them this should save energy.
- LagFix: If Flash Memory (like it is used in every phone) is used with FileSystems witch are developed for classical hard-drives or floppy-disks (like every one I know) they become very slow after a wile (if files become deleted on this systems. Simplified the system will forget where the free places on your Flash memory is and hast to search for them every time it tries to store something. That fore most Unix Systems are using the Tool fstrim for such devices (like SSD-drives) to hold an index to find free parts quickly. Unfortunately google forgot this until Android 4.3. This tool simply catch this up for older Android Versions.
- SytemApp remover: to uninstall unused google Apps and services
- FolderMount: To move App folder to the physical SD-Card witch allows me to use the hole 80 GB of my system for Apps if I want to.
- DisableService: To prevent services (mostly installed by third party apps) to start with the system. Should make the phone quicker (by not doing so much things at the background) and the battery live longer.
- ES FileExplorer: To manage my files where ever they are.
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Good point. I am using AIDE (http://www.android-ide.com/) to do development on my fairphone. Then I need access to the “closed off areas” of the file system to debug and check the files my apps are creating, so I have installed a file browser and a file editor that both are running with root acces
all apps that I ever allowed superuser access:
AdAway (Security)
AFWall (Security)
DisableService (!)
Greenify (Powersaver)
Secure Settings (Plugin for Tasker)
System App Remover (Cleaner)
Tasker (Automation,. My Favorite app)
xposed.installer (To install GravityBox, XPrivacy, App Settings, Secure Settings, Bootmanager)
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You (unfortunately) need root access to use different passwords for device encryption and screen unlock: http://nelenkov.blogspot.de/2012/08/changing-androids-disk-encryption.html
Here’s the list of root apps I’m using on my Sony Xperia V:
- /system/app mover (allows to convert system apps to non system apps): very useful when the phone internal storage comes short
- AFWall+ (iptables editor for Android): allows to specify which app have access to what kind of network (Roaming, LAN, WiFI, 3G, VPN)
- Adaway (ad blocker): will modify the “hosts” files to blacklist any ad domain
- BusyBox Free (linux commands package): contains many useful *nix commands
- CatLog (log viewer): display of system logs
- F-Droid (app “store”): alternative to google play
- FasterGPS (for a faster lock to gps satellites): will change the NTP server to decrease the time needed to lock onto GPS satellites
- Greenify (app hibernation): will put apps to sleep to increase battery time
- Root Browser (file explorer): a great file explorer, which allows to change file permissions
- SecDroid (android hardening): will secure android by various attack vectors
- Secure Settings (tasker plugin): allows to control plane mode, amongst many other options
- SystemCleanup (app cleaning): list apps that can safely be removed from the system, allows to freeze them (chmod 000) or delete them
- Titanium Backup pro (backup): backup all apps + data (including system apps) to the SD card
Titanium Backup pro and Tasker are paid apps.
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Addidionaly to all already mentioned apps needing root I am using on FP1
- SetCPU to decreas CPU frequency in certain scenarios (e.g. GPS navigation) to reduce battery consumption
- XPosed + Gravity to toggle between 2G only / 3G only / or 2G/3G-usage with only one click (in the status bar) or in auto-mode!
Combination of both did often allow me to extend one battery charge of the FP1 for a 4 day usage…
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It’s also trivial things like on my tablet I used root privileges to get rid of the annoying boot sound.
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GravityBox doesn’t want to function with my (rooted) FP2. Any known reasons? Xposed module warns me about soft bricking the phone…
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Not nice… 
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