Enabling KioskMode in Android 4.4.2 with Root

Question

I was able to enable kiosk mode in pre-KitKat-releases by killing the com.android.systemui process. Anyhow, this seems not to work in KitKat-releases: After killing the process the whole screen got stuck and I am not able to press any buttons.

After inspecting similar apps from the Play Store I saw recent updates providing a compatibility for KitKat (e.g. Sure lock demo link). Can somebody explain this KitKat-compatibility?

Can somebody name a new way to hide the navigation and status bar in KitKat-releases with root priviledges?

For API-11+, I finally got happy with https://github.com/jszczygiel/AndroidKioskMode but it could not be the case for you. Hope this helps — shkschneider, Jan 09 '15 at 10:45

Basher51 · Accepted Answer · 2015-01-12T03:09:52.857

May be you can give a try with the below code snippet to show/hide status bar on rooted android devices.I'v tested this on 4.2.2 , 4.4.2 with success.Good luck :)

To hide:

        Process proc = null;

        String ProcID = "79"; //HONEYCOMB AND OLDER

        if(Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.ICE_CREAM_SANDWICH){
            ProcID = "42"; //ICS AND NEWER
        }

        try {
            proc = Runtime.getRuntime().exec(new String[] { "su", "-c", "service call activity "+ProcID+" s16 com.android.systemui" });
        } catch (Exception e) {
            Log.w("Main","Failed to kill task bar (1).");
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
        try {
            proc.waitFor();
        } catch (Exception e) {
            Log.w("Main","Failed to kill task bar (2).");
            e.printStackTrace();
        }

To show:

        Process proc = null;
        try {
            proc = Runtime.getRuntime().exec(new String[] { "su", "-c", "am startservice -n com.android.systemui/.SystemUIService" });
        } catch (Exception e) {
            Log.w("Main","Failed to kill task bar (1).");
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
        try {
            proc.waitFor();
        } catch (Exception e) {
            Log.w("Main","Failed to kill task bar (2).");
            e.printStackTrace();
        }

Thank you. Could you explain the `service call activity %ProcID% s16 com.android.systemui` command a little bit? I'm confused why the process id has changed from Honeycomb to IceCreamSandwich… — Greeny, Jan 12 '15 at 09:43
Could you at least name the source of your answer so that I can forward new answer (the syntax of the `service call …` command) to the original poster? — Greeny, Jan 13 '15 at 10:36
@Greeny : The process id for the SystemUI class changed from 79 to 42 when ICS was introduced hence the use of if condition to satisfy the different versions.You can also take a look at : http://stackoverflow.com/questions/13454528/hide-system-bar-in-jelly-bean-tablet-rooted .Good luck,happy to answer more and thanks for the bounty :-) — Basher51, Jan 14 '15 at 01:02
Thank you. Works perfectly on a Galaxy Tab Pro 8.4 running 4.42 — loumaros, Mar 31 '15 at 12:21

Enabling KioskMode in Android 4.4.2 with Root

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