Database Info

A Real Linux Android System

Before reading.
This article requires that your phone is Rooted and has Busybox installed.
HTC owners, S-off your phone as well.
Android is a great operating system for SmartPhones. Only problem with it (From a more technical users point of view) is the small useless bad excuse of a linux system running behind the UI. Some of the smaller issues can be fixed by installing Busybox that provides a better basic set of tools to work with, but it's not enough. What I would like is to be able to use almost any real linux cli application, daemon, library etc. Also some compilers would be great. I'm using an HTC desire which has more than enough power to do things like compiling (I know, I have done it.), and so has a lot of other SmartPhones. Why would one need this when there is cross compilers you can use on regular and faster machines? Well, because It's fun, why else. I did not spend all that money on a SmartPhones just to make a few phone calls and write a few text messages. My old Sony Ericsson did that quite well. I spend that money to get a phone with many possibilities that I could play with.
I tried to search the web for some helping instructions on how to port a real linux system to this phone. What I mostly got, was people who ported linux systems that would run as an extra OS on the phone, some even with an Xserver accessible via VNC. Sounds fun, but not what I was after. I did not want an extra OS using CPU and unnecessary RAM. I just wanted some extra tools, libs etc to work with and the regular linux user management. I managed to find an old article from someone using Debians armel version on an old G1 phone. I thought that if it worked on that phone, it would be possible to do so on mine. So I started playing around with that.
The way this works is by installing a bare minimum debian on an second partition. This will not boot anything up since it will just work as extra tools and lib using the already booted android linux system.. You will still only have one OS but more tools (Including the nice APT package system) to work with.
Now there is two ways of using debian on android.
The first way is to setup the Debian in an chroot environment. This has some flaws like I have not yet been able to make the chroot start second jobs, which means that you will be able to start applications and daemons running in the current shell session. But you will not be able to make them run in the background. But as an development environment it will still work great, as you will be able to use the Debian libs and compilers.
The second way (The way I was after) is to setup Debian using the UAFS kernel module. This is used to merge directories into one with different rules for each. For an example you would be able to merge /debian_root/etc and /system/etc into a shared /etc with RW on Debians etc and RO on Androids forcing any changes to be made in /debian_root/etc. Using this option you will use Debian to extend the Android Linux part. Android UI with Debian Shell.
This article is split into 3 parts. The first part is the setup of Debian. Must be done whether you want chroot or a merged system. In the second part we will cover the setup of the chroot environment.
The third part is the setup of the merged system. This will require one thing in order to work.
You will need a kernel with the uafs module which is not default in most android kernels. You will need to compile your own kernel. People using the Thalamus kernel, can download a kernel with this module kernel-2.6.37.2_AUFS.zip. A big thanks to Thalamus for providing this. Note that this kernel was a special request from me that he was kind enough to provide. It comes with absolutely no guaranties. Do not email spam him about errors you might encounter using it as this is not an official release.
Note that once you mount the Debian system, you will not be able to mount the SD Card when connecting it to your PC. You can download the App “Multi Mount SD-Card” from Market which will be able to mount your SD Card on your PC while mounted on your phone. This app should also speed up transfers on 2.6.37 kernels, or so I have heard.
Part 1: Building Debian
We are going to run debian from a file containing a ext2 filesystem. If your SD Card is big enough you might be able to create an extra partition and force it to mount as something else other than ext-sd, but in this article we are going to use a partitioned file.
Also, this will require that you have the tool “debootstrap” on your PC. This is found in Ubuntu and Debian, dont know about other Linux distro's or Operating systems. If you don't use Linux or an distro with debootstrap you can download a Ubuntu Live CD from the Ubuntu website. This can be run on CD, DVD and USB disks without installing it. For this article I have used Ubuntu 10.10.
Open a terminal on your Ubuntu/Debian/LiveCD PC and cd to the folder where you want to temp. store your debian. I will call this path “debian_dir”
The first thing we will do is to create the partitioned file.
I'm creating a file with 1.5GB of space. You can create the size you want.
Don't use 0 in the size, dd don't like that.
Code:
cd debian_dir
dd if=/dev/zero of=debian.img seek=1499999999 bs=1 count=1
mke2fs -F debian.img
mkdir debian
mount -o loop debian.img debian/
Now that we have created the file and mounted it, we should download and place debian inside of it. First we will install debootstrap.
Code:
apt-get install debootstrap
debootstrap --arch armel --foreign squeeze debian http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian
umount debian/
Debian Squeeze is Debian 6.0 which replaces the old Lenny.
Copy the debian.img file to your SD Card on your phone. I placed mine in the root of the SD Card.
Now open a terminal on your phone. You can download one from market. There are some free once, but the paid “Better Terminal” is the best to work with in my opinion.
Note: All shell work is done on the phone from now on.
First we need some temp. exports.
Type the fallowing:
Code:
export PATH=/bin:/sbin:/usr/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/local/sbin:$PATH
export HOME=/root
export TERM=linux
export DM=/data/local/debian
export DI=/sdcard/debian.img
Now we will create the Debian dir and then create a loop device which we will use to mount the Debian image to the Debian dir.
Code:
mkdir -d $DM
mknod /dev/loop0 b 7 0
mount -o loop,noatime $DI $DM
Now that we have debian mounted in our debian folder, we need to finalize the installation. Not all files as been installed yet. Don't forget to activate Mobile Network or Wifi.
chroot $DM /debootstrap/debootstrap –second-stage
We also need to insert the debian repository and a DNS (I use OpenDNS).
You can use whatever you want for the DNS, you routers IP for an example. It should have some default Ips configured.
Code:
echo “deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian squeeze main contrib non-free” > $DM/etc/apt/sources.list
echo “208.67.222.222” > $DM/etc/resolv.conf
Now change the root to the debian dir and set a root password and make sure that certain folders already exists.
Code:
chroot $DM /bin/bash
passwd root
mkdir root
exit
Now we need to make sure that certain variables exists and that the values is as they should be. So we will alter the /system/bin/sh that android uses as login shell.
Code:
cd /system/bin
mv sh sh0
Create a new /system/bin/sh file with the fallowing content.
This will ensure that these variables is created and/or changed every time you enter a new shell session. You can call another shell like bash or ash instead /system/xbin/sh, just make sure to use ash or sh at the top, since bash does not seam to understand [email protected]
Warning: It is very important that the /system/bin/sh file is made correct. Android will not boot if anything is wrong with this file. It should be exactly like the one I posted, and you cannot make it on your PC and push it to the phone. Don't know why, it works fine with other shell scripts, but not that one.
Enter an adb shell from your PC and use vi or nano (You can download nano here here) to copy and paste the content directly into the ADB Shell.
Note: ADB from the recovery will always work. It does not use /system/bin/sh
Code:
#!/system/xbin/sh
/system/xbin/sh --login [email protected]
Make sure that it has execute rights. Then type sh in the terminal to make sure that it works before you close your ADB Shell session.
Code:
chmod a+x /system/bin/sh
sh
sh0 will not be used, it's up to you wether you want to save it or not. Just make sure that /system/xbin/sh exists, otherwise
copy /system/bin/sh0 to /system/xbin/sh.
Now we need the profile file that is needed by this method. This file will make sure that we have all our variables and the data that they should contain.
Android does not keep very good track of these things. Place this data in the file /system/etc/profile
Code:
export TERM=linux
export TERMINFO=/etc/terminfo
export PATH=/bin:/sbin:/usr/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/vendor/bin:/system/bin:/system/xbin
if [ "$EUID" == "0" ]; then
if [ -z "$HOME" ] || [ -z "$USER" ] || [ -z "$GROUPS" ]; then
export HOME=/root
export USER=root
export GROUPS=0
fi
else
# Make sure that this user id variable exists.
if [ -z $EUID ]; then
export EUID=$(echo $(id | cut -d "(" -f 1) | cut -d "=" -f 2)
fi
# If we have an /etc/passwd file available,
# we should also make sure to get name, group and home info from that file and
# store in the default linux variables.
if [ -f /etc/passwd ]; then
# Create the user info variables based on user id and /etc/passwd
export USER=$(grep "x:${EUID}:" /etc/passwd | cut -d : -f 1)
export GROUPS=$(grep "x:${EUID}:" /etc/passwd | cut -d : -f 4)
export HOME=$(grep "x:${EUID}:" /etc/passwd | cut -d : -f 6)
fi
fi
export ADID=$EUID
if [ "$PS1" ]; then
if [ "$BASH" ]; then
# The file bash.bashrc already sets the default PS1.
if [ ! -z $HOME ] && [ -f $HOME/.bashrc ]; then
. $HOME/.bashrc
elif [ -f /etc/bash.bashrc ]; then
. /etc/bash.bashrc
else
export PS1='\h:\W\$ '
fi
else
if [ "$EUID" == "0" ]; then
PS1='\w # '
else
PS1='\w $ '
fi
fi
else
PS1='\h:\W\$ '
fi
if [ -d /etc/profile.d ]; then
for i in /etc/profile.d/*.sh; do
if [ -r $i ]; then
. $i
fi
done
unset i
fi
We will also need an /etc/bash.bashrc which is needed because /etc/profile not always gets executed.
Code:
if [ "$ADID" != "$EUID" ]; then
# Some times /etc/profile is not executed (For an example when using Androids su command).
# /etc/bash.bashrc however it used instead. So we just execute it manually in these cases.
# If you create a local bashrc ($HOME/.bashrc), remember to include this check.
# /etc/bash.bachrc is not used when a local file exists.
if [ -f /etc/profile ]; then
. /etc/profile
# Since /etc/profile links back to this file,
# we will make sure not to start an unending loop.
# the profile file should update this, but it's better to be on the safe side.
if [ "$ADID" != "$EUID" ]; then
export ADID=$EUID
fi
fi
fi
PS1='\h:\W\$ '
And last we have some user and group configurations in order to make Debian better work with Android. Open your Android terminal emulator and make sure it opens as user and not root. Now type "/system/xbin/id".
What we need here is the uid, gid and the ids of each accosiated groups along with the names of it all. In my terminal I have "uid=10048(app_48) gid=10048(app_48) groups=1015(sdcard_rw),3003(inet)".
What we will do it create this user along with the groups in our Debian inveroment. However, I use the uid name and gid name "bterm" instead of app_48, but still with the original IDs. The inet and sdcard_rw groups will be created as system groups. Do the same for your app user and group if you don't want any login possibilities with this user. I however have assigned home and password to this user.
This needs to be doen in chroot
Code:
chroot $DM /bin/bash
groupadd --system --gid 1015 sdcard_rw
groupadd --system --gid 3003 inet
groupadd --gid 10048 bterm
adduser --home /home/bterm --gid 10048 --uid 10048 bterm
gpasswd -a bterm sdcard_rw
gpasswd -a bterm inet
exit
Now your ready for the next step. Remember that the user you have created, is the user used by your terminal emulator when you are not logged on as root. This ID is only assigned to that specific app, if you install another terminal, it will get another ID.
Part 2 – Setting up a chroot environment
The best way of doing this is to make two small scripts and place them in /system/bin or /system/xbin. One script for doing the mount after phone boot. And one script for entering the chroot when open a new shell session.
Here is the mounting script that I call mkdebian.
This needs to be executed once every time the phone has rebooted. If your ROM supports init scripts, you can add it there for auto-mount on boot.
Code:
#!/system/bin/sh
export DM=/data/local/debian
export DI=/sdcard/debian.img
# Create the loop device and mount the debian image
mknod /dev/loop0 b 7 0
mount -o loop,noatime $DI $DM
# Let's make sure that we can access our sd card from within the chroot
if [ ! -d "$DM/mnt/sdcard" ]; then
mkdir $DM/mnt/sdcard
fi
mount --bind /mnt/sdcard $DM/mnt/sdcard
# Now we make sure that the chroot has access to all the device maps
if [ ! -d "$DM/dev" ]; then
mkdir $DM/dev
fi
mount --bind /dev $DM/dev
# We also need to make proc, sys etc available from within the chroot
chroot $DM mount -t proc proc /proc
chroot $DM mount -t sysfs sysfs /sys
# And last fix the mtab
chroot $DM rm -f /etc/mtab
chroot $DM ln -s /proc/mounts /etc/mtab
echo “Debian was mounted in $DM/”
Now for the script that I called “debian”.
This script will make you enter the chroot environment using one single command. Every time you exist the debian chroot, you can enter back using the command “debian”.
Code:
#!/system/bin/sh
chroot /data/local/debian/ /bin/bash
And that is it. Open a terminal, type debian and start using your debian environment. It might be a good idea to run aptitude update or apt-get update before you start using the package manager.
Part 3 – Settings up a merged Android/Debian environment
This is the fun part to play with. A merged Android/Debian environment without the usage of chroot. This only requires a script to be executed at boot, or after boot.
Remember that this will not work unless your kernel has the aufs module.
Code:
#!/system/xbin/sh
export DM=/data/local/debian
export DI=/mnt/sdcard/debian.img
# Now we mount the debian image to our debian folder.
mknod /dev/loop0 b 7 0
mount -o loop,noatime $DI $DM
# These two directories exists in both android and debian,
# so these are going to be merged together.
mount -t aufs -o dirs=$DM/etc=rw:/system/etc=ro aufs /system/etc
# For some reason, mounting /sbin with aufs does not work.
# So we make a little cheat with symbolic links instead.
mount -o remount,rw /
mv /sbin /sbin0
ln -s $DM/sbin /
rm -rf /sbin/adbd
rm -rf /sbin/ueventd
ln -s /sbin0/adbd /sbin/
ln -s /sbin0/ueventd /sbin/
# Let's get all the debian root directories out to the real root dir.
rm -rf /root
for x in tmp root lib bin boot home media opt selinux srv usr var
do
ln -s $DM/$x /
done
if [ -f /system/xbin/bash ]; then
mount --bind /bin/bash /system/xbin/bash
mount --bin /system/xbin/bash /system/xbin/sh
else
mount --bind /bin/bash /system/xbin/sh
fi
echo "Debian has been merged with Android..."
Run this at startup and start using all of debians possibilities (Don't run it yet).
The / dir is left with RW permissions. If this is set to RO then apt-get will not work. It writes tmp log files to this dir when running. It does not matter since all changes to this dir is restored to default on every boot.
Also dont forget to run apt-get update or aptitude update to update the package list.
You are now able to install and run almost anything (CLI Only) that runs on debian systems and other linux dists. Personally I'm currently running OpenSSH Server and Lighttpd with PHP. A perfect small transportable web server.
You can use either /etc/init.d/[your service] start
or
service [your service] start
to start daemons you have installed.
Now you can use the "mkdebian" command to merge your new Debian with Android.
Note: The command “su” from debian works differently than the android “su” command.
The debian command uses the regular linux management to provide access which means that it will ask for your root password that you created in the first part. The android command will just provide you with su rights without a password. Both commands provides su rights to both android and debian, so it is possible to remove the android command and create a new Android/Java based SU app for the Android UI that will require root password.
Note: There is a small problem with the Android "su" command. It does not recheck the /etc/profile.
That means that if you log on using the regular user, and then uses the "su" command, user variables does not get updated with su paths.
Using the Debian "su" command will work fine, just note that this command will promp for password. Also logging in using the root account
directly works fine.
Good luck
[Edit: 2011-03-09 11:06]
- Changed the /etc/profile script in Part 1
- Added /etc/bash.bashrc script in Part 1
- Changed User and Group setup and moved it from Part 3 to Part 1
- Fixed error in /system/bin/sh
All of this will fix some permission problems with Debian
[Edit: 2011-03-08 11:21]
- Fixed problems with user management by adding an /etc/profile and changing /system/bin/sh and the debian merge script. Using the "login" command is no longer needed.
[Edit: 2011-03-07 08:49]
- Fixed bug in Part 1 sh script.
[Edit: 2011-03-07 00:20]
- Added a new /system/bin/sh script to Part 1
- Added the way we create missing users and groups in Part 3
[Edit: 2011-03-06 19:36]
- Inserted a warning text in part 1 about avoiding problems when creating a new /system/bin/sh.

Applying Host name
If you want to set a custom hostname for your phone, you can create an init script (If your ROM supports it).
Code:
#!/system/bin/sh
# Get the hostname if it exists, or set it to localhost
if [ -f /system/etc/hostname ]; then
_HOSTNAME=$(cat /system/etc/hostname)
if [ -z $_HOSTNAME ]; then
_HOSTNAME=localhost
fi
else
_HOSTNAME=localhost
fi
# Update the Hostname
echo "$_HOSTNAME" > /proc/sys/kernel/hostname
# Update the hosts file
echo "127.0.0.1 localhost.localdomain localhost" > /etc/hosts
# If the hostname is not localhost, we add one more line to the hosts file
if [ "$_HOSTNAME" != "localhost" ]; then
echo "127.0.0.1 $_HOSTNAME" >> /etc/hosts
fi
This will look in /system/etc/ for the regular linux hostname file. If it exists, it will take the hostname from that file and set as the global hostname.
If it does not exist, "localhost" is used instead. Also it creates the /system/etc/hosts file.
Add or Edit your hostname like this.
Code:
echo "myhostname" > /system/etc/hostname
Note: Remember to delete the hosts and hostname files in your debian /etc/ dir when using merged environment. Otherwise they will overwrite the once in /system/etc/ as debian has first priority.
Manipulating the Android Permissions
Androids permissions works by providing a User ID for each application. This user (Application) can then get a range of different permissions by being added to groups with the permissions required by the app. For an example an app that needs to write to the SD Card, should be a member of Androids sdcard_rw group which translates into 1015 in a Linux group id. Using the numeric values of the Android groups, we can assign these permissions to shell users, daemons etc.
An example:
I had problems with my Http Server because I wanted my www folder on my sdcard. But, the www-data user and group could not be allowed to write to the SD Card, which I needed it to do, because Android controls what permissions the SD Card should have, not even root can change that.
What I did was creating a system group that I named sdcard_rw (Same name as the android, just to better keep track of the groups) with the same Id as the Android sdcard_rw (1015). I then assigned that group to my www-data user (gpasswd -a www-data sdcard_rw) and now my lighttpd had Read/Write access to my sdcard.
You can use the same example for creating a regular SSH User by using the Android shell group or for any other type of user that needs some Android permissions to work properly.
[Edit: 2011-03-08 21:13]
- Added an permission example

Great...
I was just looking into this myself for the last few days.
strange how there isn't more of this being talked about.
at least I have been unable to find anything.

Omg this sounds awesome,
Will try this when u get home and will report back
Sent from my Nexus One using XDA App

I'm still trying to work out some problems with User Rights on SD Card. Can't get lighttpd to be allowed to create files in my SD Card www dir (Does not matter what user and group I set it to use). I can't even get the root account to be allowed to change permissions on SD Card files and folders. It's not the biggest problem, but will report back when I figure it out.

Nice! I've been constantly disappointed for the past year at how un-Linuxy Android is under the hood and unimpressed with the old chroot tricks. This looks much better and I'll try it soon.

I have added a new /system/bin/sh script that can be found in Part 1. This script will automatically look for bash and, if that exists, try to find bash.bashrc, .profile or .bashrc in /etc or the users home dir. If bash does not exist, it looks for sh instead. If you have both one of the Android specific compiled bash, then Debians bash is used when available as this is made to work in a real linux environment. Android bash does not seam to work that way. Also debians packages gets updates via APT.
Also I changed the way groups and users is created in Part 3. Manually inserting them to /etc/passwd, /etc/shadow and /etc/group did not seam to be enough. The users and groups where only half registered. For an example the command "login" gave me a lot of errors, and i had problems with user rights. By using adduser and addgroup in a chroot before the first merge, the user management seams to work as it should now.

I was playing with Debian on my phone just a few days ago too. I've found that same G1 article you mentioned, and installed Lenny in a chroot environment. Background daemons work fine for me, I've installed OpenSSH and I'm using ConnectBot connecting to 127.0.0.1 to get a terminal, so I don't have to chroot every time. I even have X with tightvnc server + android-vnc-viewer. Running the desktop Firefox on my phone is fun Although not very useful. I'm still thinking about what awesome things we could do with this that we couldn't otherwise.
Anyway, great howto.

Do you have any details on the Thalamus kernel? What phone is it for? Overclocked, audio hack, etc? Or is it just a vanilla kernel with the extra module?

What applications can we dream up?
The first thing that springs to mind is could this be used to create a low power server running bittorrent and the like?
Would a cheap device like the Vodafone 845 be under-powered for this?
Can you connect to a usb hub to allow multiple devices to be connected to it? I'm thinking usb network adapters, external storage, etc.
How much additional effort on top of this guide would be needed?
Just curious...

will not... - -!

Well I learned one thing. Don't make Shell scripts when you are tired. I started a shell loop on phone bootup with my /system/bin/sh fix (Which had been changed). When using the merged environment, you need (for now) to enter /bin/login when you open a new shell and login as user with the password you created in Part 3. This will make Debian take over the user management which among other things will make sure that the right variables etc. exists. I have tried to locate where android controls new shell sessions, but I cant seam to find it.
When you make Debian take over, you can use your Linux shell as any other. .bashrc, .profile, /etc/bash.bashrc, /etc/profile files, change default shell (bash, sh, ash) in /etc/passwd and so on.
#9 Well the kernel is the same that is found in the Oxygen 2.0.1, so it's an gingerbread rom (2.3.3). If it works only in Oxygen, I don't know but I don't think so.
#10 He he, Could not say. For now I'm just trying to make it work as I want it to work. After that I might start playing around with different things.

The "login" command is no longer needed. I finally found a way to successfully control user variables and management, making Android and Debian work together as one when merging the two.

This is amazing. Totally going to do this later tonight when I get home.

If you merge using AUFS instead of making a chroot, you should perhaps use the system user (Id: 1000, Group: 1000) as the regular user.
There are only two static users in Android, 0 and 1000.
Android just isn't made to work as an multi-user system. This is how the Java UI is made, and we really need to Linux part to be compatible with that part of the OS. Instead of multi-users, android uses it's apps as users. Each app works as one user with different id. So the 10048 I used as regular user is just the ID of mine "Better Terminal". Switching to another terminal app changed the EUID.
Use the root and only root to work with in the shell. And then delete Debians "su" command and stick with the one from android. Debians need all users that execute "su" to be written to the /etc/passwd.

All GNU tool and library, that's Great. thanks a lot.

I have added an example of how to apply Android rules to shell users, daemons etc. Some daemons will need this in order to function.
I have added this in Thread 2 below the hostname example.
I also changed the main Thread. Found a fix for the rest of the permission problems, including the Android "su" command issue.

I have tested this Android/Debian merge using several methods (ADB, SSH, different local terminals) and it worked on most. I had one problem with one local terminal app that did not execute /etc/profile and some Debian users in /etc/passwd that didn't either.
To fix this I changed /system/bin/sh from using "/system/xbin/sh --login [email protected]" to instead use "/system/xbin/sh --rcfile /system/etc/profile [email protected]". I then moved the Debians /bin/bash to /usr/bin/bash and made a similar script file in /bin/bash > "/usr/bin/bash --rcfile /etc/profile [email protected]". You can make the same for /bin/sh if you don't like using bash for your /etc/passwd users.
Remember to change the bash bind mount in the mkdebian script from /bin/bash to /usr/bin/bash
Use whatever method works on your phone.

This looks like a ton of fun, and could be very useful. I'd like to try this on my NookColor (N2Acard, CM7.1), probably using The Guardian Project's lilDebi image as a base. They go the chroot route with their installer, and I'm going to have to do some hacking on their scripts to make them work with the NookColor. I figure if I'm going to have to hack on it, I might as well put my efforts toward a more ideal solution.
Question: It doesn't look like the CM7.1 kernel supports aufs. That is,
Code:
cat /proc/filesystems
doesn't return aufs as one of the supported filesystems.
Aside from a lack of elegance, is there any reason we can't apply your /sbin workaround to "merging" the whole filesystem? [I recognize there's a certain amount of ignorance behind the question; I figure there's only one way to cure that: Ask.]
OR, how difficult might it be to take a complete CM7.1 kernel and add aufs support to it?
'preciate any help I can get!

mailman1175 said:
This looks like a ton of fun, and could be very useful. I'd like to try this on my NookColor (N2Acard, CM7.1), probably using The Guardian Project's lilDebi image as a base. They go the chroot route with their installer, and I'm going to have to do some hacking on their scripts to make them work with the NookColor. I figure if I'm going to have to hack on it, I might as well put my efforts toward a more ideal solution.
Question: It doesn't look like the CM7.1 kernel supports aufs. That is,
Code:
cat /proc/filesystems
doesn't return aufs as one of the supported filesystems.
Aside from a lack of elegance, is there any reason we can't apply your /sbin workaround to "merging" the whole filesystem? [I recognize there's a certain amount of ignorance behind the question; I figure there's only one way to cure that: Ask.]
OR, how difficult might it be to take a complete CM7.1 kernel and add aufs support to it?
'preciate any help I can get!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
here's where you get aufs patches.
you'll have to build the kernel yourself to make it work.
to the OP:
using the aufs mount method instead of a chroot...
I have a small problem, I don't know if it shows up with your .img filesystem method, but with an sd-ext partition used intead of the .img file, apt-get fouls massively when trying to update/upgrade libc6.
it complains about the libc6*.so existing in two places at once, and requests the existing one be removed. If it's removed, then nothing in the Linux install works, because just about everything is compiled against libc. I can use busybox to manipulate files with the libc6 removed or hidden away, but can't seem to get past the error since dpkg and apt don't work without some version of libc installed.
Any hints/suggestions? I like your scripts a lot better than the chroot ones I cobbled together from everyone else's work last year for similar purposes before I got aufs working in a kernel.

[APP][DEV][GUIDE] Using the Android Java Internal/Hidden API classes

Using Java Reflection with Eclipse ADT to Access Internal/Hidden API classes.
Purpose
We present a way to access all the Internal and Hidden Java packages/classes
in the AOS. To do this we need to both repackage the Android.jar and hack the
Eclipse ADT plugin, to allow using these internal packages.
Posting
==================================================
Do NOT post general questions/requests on how to
do this or that, they will not be answered here.
DO post if you have additional tricks, hacks or
information that can help/benefit this tutorial.
==================================================
Background
There are two reasons one cannot use internal packages. One reason is that, if
you're using Eclipse as your development platform, those packages are
internally blocked in the Eclipse ADT plugin. Second reason is that the normal
development android.jar runtime does not contain those *.class files that
belong to the internal packages.
"There is no easy way to use com.android.internal package (internal API) or
anything marked with @hide attribute (hidden API) without using reflection.
That’s because android.jar file does not contain classes from internal and
hidden API and because of this nobody can reference those classes in compile
time."
Thus we need to first restore the "original" android.jar which will allow us
to use internal and hidden APIs. But the runtime equivalent of Android SDK’s
android.jar file is framework.jar. This file is located in the
/system/framework/ directory of your device. We will extract and use this for
our pleasure.
The general procedure:
A) Grab the "full" framwork.jar from your device
B) extract the class files
C) add them to "full" android.jar ??
D) Hack the Eclipse ADT plugin jar.
Finally, NOTHING would have been possible without the excellent step-by-step
instructions on the devmaze-blog by senior Android developer Ievgenii Nazaruk
(aka. "inazaruk"). THANK YOU Ievgenii!​References
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/...d-sdk-with-hidden-and-internal-apis-available
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/...-state-permission-for-apps-ran-on-gingerbread
http://code.google.com/p/smali/wiki/DeodexInstructions
http://code.google.com/p/adt-addons/
​

The General Procedure
NOTE: All this was performed on Windows Vista with Cygwin.(1) Grab BOOTCLASSPATH from init.rc
Find the line in your init.rc file that reads something like:
Code:
[SIZE=2]export BOOTCLASSPATH /system/framework/core.jar:/system/framework/bouncycastle.jar:/system/framework/ext.jar:/system/framework/framework.jar:/system/framework/android.policy.jar:/system/framework/services.jar:/system/framework/core-junit.jar[/SIZE]
Extract and reformat the path to:
Code:
[SIZE=2]core.jar:bouncycastle.jar:ext.jar:framework.jar:android.policy.jar:services.jar:core-junit.jar[/SIZE]
(2) Grab the "framework" from your device
Create a working directory somewhere, let's call it "_framework":
Code:
[SIZE=2]mkdir ./_framework[/SIZE]
[SIZE=2]cd _framework[/SIZE]
Grab all the framework files from your device:
Code:
[SIZE=2]adb pull /system/framework .[/SIZE]
Rename directory if needed.
NOTE-1: From now on I'll assume you know where you are!
NOTE-2: Most GB 2.3.4+ devices uses .odex'ed files,
with name pairs like: <package>.jar and <package>.odex.
These need to be converted.
(3) Use baksmali with (1)
You can also use baksmali with the switch: -d <framwork-dir>.
The general command is something like below, but in windows there may be "wrappers"
that allow you to just type "baksmali" without the "java -jar" prefix and without
the ".jar" post fix. Anyway here is the command I used:
Code:
[SIZE=2]java -Xmx1024m -jar ./../../baksmali.jar -a 10 -c :core.jar:bouncycastle.jar:ext.jar:framework.jar:android.policy.jar:services.jar:core-junit.jar -x framework.odex[/SIZE]
==> This results in all files put in the "out" sub-directory.
This directory contain 3 sub-directories (for GB 2.3.4):
Code:
[I]android [/I](Hidden APIs)
[I]com [/I](Internal APIs)
[I]javax [/I](Hidden APIs)
NOTE: If you are using Google's own API's, you will probably also need to add
those packages to the path above. (Eg. Email.jar, etc etc ?)
(4) Then use smali to create a dex file from "out" directory
Code:
java -jar smali.jar out
==> creates out.dex from "out" directory.
(5) Run dex2jar on out.dex
Code:
[SIZE=2]./dex2jar.bat out.dex[/SIZE]
==> creates out_dex2jar.jar
(This .jar contain close to 4900 files at 12 MB!)
(6) Rename "out_dex2jar.jar" to "framework-classes.zip"
Code:
[SIZE=2]mv out_dex2jar.jar framework-classes.zip
unzip framework-classes.zip[/SIZE]
(7) Find and copy your Android SDK's android.jar file
Go to: /path/to/android-sdk-windows/platforms/android-X/android.jar
where X is the API level of interest. This obviously have to match the
API level of the files you extracted from your device in: /system/framework .
This .jar file contain more than 5300 files when expanded, but missing all
the internal packages. Our job is to add them back in.
Let's first make a copy that we can use to expand and add files from (6):
Code:
cp android.jar custom-android.zip
unzip custom-android.zip
(8) Add all *.class files from (6) in to (7)
Copy and replace all existing *.class files from framework-classes.zip into
custom-android.zip:
Code:
[SIZE=2]cp -R /path/to/framework-classes/* /path/to/custom-android/.[/SIZE]
The root content of that directory should then look something like this:
Code:
[SIZE=2]android[/SIZE]
[SIZE=2]assets[/SIZE]
[SIZE=2]com[/SIZE]
[SIZE=2]dalvik[/SIZE]
[SIZE=2]java[/SIZE]
[SIZE=2]javax[/SIZE]
[SIZE=2]junit[/SIZE]
[SIZE=2]META-INF[/SIZE]
[SIZE=2]org[/SIZE]
[SIZE=2]res[/SIZE]
[SIZE=2]AndroidManifest.xml[/SIZE]
[SIZE=2]resources.arsc[/SIZE]
(9) Rename directory and create your new "classy-android.jar"
We rename it so not confuse with the original:
Code:
mv custom-android classy-android
zip classy-android
mv classy-android.zip classy-android.jar
IMPORTANT:
Make absolutely sure that the folder structure of your zip archive
is exactly the same as what you intended. To check, unzip the file
and see if it is what you (and eventually Eclipse) would expect.
(For example, if you use 7zip to zip a directory file called "test",
into "test.zip", you may end-up extracting it to ./test/test/... )
(10) Enabling & Restricting Access to classy-android.jar
Instead of just replacing the android.jar with classy-android.jar, we choose
to create a customized Android platform. This way you can enable the Internal
and Hidden API's for those projects requiring them, while other standard
projects doesn't have access to those.
(a) Go to: /path/to/android-sdk-windows/platforms/
and copy the relevant directory (for example):
Code:
cp -R android-10 android-10-internals
(b) Replace android.jar with your classy-android.jar:
Code:
cp classy-android.jar android.jar
("cp" overwrites!)
(c) Edit the build.prop file:
Edit/replace the following lines:
Code:
[SIZE=2]ro.build.version.sdk=10 ==> ro.build.version.sdk=[COLOR=Black][B]-10[/B][/COLOR][/SIZE]
[SIZE=2]ro.build.version.release=2.3.3 ==> ro.build.version.release=2.3.internal[/SIZE]
(11) Customizing the Eclipse ADT
In order to be able to use com.android.internal packages in the Eclipse ADT,
you have to disable the internal protection mechanism of the plugin, that
prevent you to use these libraries. You can see this by right-clicking on your
project package and navigate to:
Code:
[SIZE=2]==> Properties ==> Java Build Path ==> Libraries (tab) [/SIZE]
[SIZE=2]--> Android 2.x.x --> android.jar [/SIZE]
[SIZE=2]--> "Access rules: 1 rule defined": [B][COLOR=Red](X)[/COLOR][/B] [B]Forbidden: com/android/internal/**[/B][/SIZE]
This can not be removed (bug?), even though the interface allows changing, it
never persists after closing the Properties window. So we have to hack it!
The way to do it, is to hexedit the correct java class file and change the
name from "internal" to "internax". First let's find the correct file. The
plugin file is located in the ./eclipse/plugins/ directory, and its name is
something like:
Code:
com.android.ide.eclipse.adt_18.0.0.v201203301601-306762.jar
(a) make a backup copy of this (with the exact name preserved) in another directory.
(b) make a another copy of this in another directory.
(c) unzip (b) in that directory
Code:
[SIZE=2]cp com.android.ide.eclipse.adt_18.0.0.v201203301601-306762.jar hacked_adt.zip[/SIZE]
[SIZE=2]unzip hacked_adt.zip[/SIZE]
[SIZE=2]cd hacked_adt[/SIZE]
This is a huge directory system, so forget poking around in it,
just go to the correct sub-directory:
Code:
[SIZE=2]cd ./com/android/ide/eclipse/adt/internal/project/[/SIZE]
Then find the correct file and the approximate string location within that file:
Code:
[SIZE=2]strings.exe -f -4 -t x ./*.class |grep "android\/internal"[/SIZE]
It happens to be in "AndroidClasspathContainerInitializer.class". Now, use a
hexeditor to find and change the string "com/android/internal/**"
to "com/android/internax/**". That will do it!
Now zip-up your hacked jar directory and copy it over the old one.
(Remember that "cp" overwrites without warning!)
Code:
[SIZE=2]zip hacked_adt[/SIZE]
[SIZE=2]cp hacked_adt.zip /path/to/eclipse/plugins/com.android.ide.eclipse.adt_18.0.0.v201203301601-306762.jar[/SIZE]
You Are Done!
Enjoy your newly hacked Eclipse! ​Errors
If you get any errors;
1. make sure you have zipped up everything properly as warned before.
2. make sure you have included Google API packages in your BOOTCLASSPATH in step (3).
3. Try to "clean-up" the Java by: "Right-Click" ==> Source ==> "Clean Up...".
4. Google them
5. Ignore them
6. Give up. Not! But I can't help you!
If it still doesn't work, try to download inazaruk's pre-compiled set of internal android.jar's from here.
(For android 7,8,10,15.)
​

WIP! <here be dragons2>

For a project using internal package imports, see my thread:
"[TOOL][APP][WIP] Native AT Command Injector"
<here be more dragons>

Following the instructions in posts 1-2 above, may not always work. It is not known to me at this time, why it shouldn't. One theory is that it can have something to do with how Eclipse and Android.jar is packaging their files and the resulting sizes.
This was mentioned in this Stackoverflow post:
"Jar files: why does extracting then compression a jar file create a file of a different size to the original?"
Then reading the man pages for "jar" we can inform ourselves with:
Code:
[SIZE=2] c Creates a new archive file named jarfile (if f is specified) or to
standard output (if f and jarfile are omitted). Add to it the
files and directories specified by inputfiles.
u Updates an existing file jarfile (when f is specified) by adding
to it files and directories specified by inputfiles.
x Extracts files and directories from jarfile (if f is specified) or
standard input (if f and jarfile are omitted). If inputfiles is
specified, only those specified files and directories are
extracted. Otherwise, all files and directories are extracted.
t Lists the table of contents from jarfile (if f is specified) or
standard input (if f and jarfile are omitted). If inputfiles is
specified, only those specified files and directories are listed.
Otherwise, all files and directories are listed.
i Generate index information for the specified jarfile and its
dependent jar files.
[/SIZE]
More info is provided here:
The JAR Overview @
http://java.sun.com/javase/6/docs/technotes/guides/jar/jarGuide.html
The JAR File Specification @
http://java.sun.com/javase/6/docs/technotes/guides/jar/jar.html
The JARIndex Spec @
http://java.sun.com/javase/6/docs/technotes/guides/jar/jar.html
JAR Tutorial @
http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/jar/
pack200 Reference Page @
http://java.sun.com/javase/6/docs/technotes/tools/share/pack200.html
Another theory is that it may have something to do with what seem to be, that Google have revoked the the use of MODIFY_PHONE_STATE since Android 2.3, and that this influences the Eclipse behavior, when using and modifying older android.jar's. This was mentioned here and here.
Any help would be very much appreciated!

< bump >

Hi, thanks for the info, I made it using linux and worked really nice, these were the lines that I used, hope be useful.
This is my Android folder at home
Code:
Android/
├── eclipse
├── ndk
├── platforms-internals
├── sdk
└── tools
Start an avd running the desired API to modify in this case API-17
Code:
$ emulator -avd avd_api_17 -no-window &
Get the framework
Code:
$ cd ~/Android/
$ mkdir _framework
$ cd _framework
$ adb -s emulator-5554 pull /system/framework .
Grab BOOTCLASSPATH
Code:
$ adb -s emulator-5554 shell cat init.rc | grep BOOTCLASSPATH > bootclasspath
I didn't have the tools used in this tutorial, so I included the steps for getting them
Decompile with baskmali
Code:
$ cd ~/Android/tools
$ wget https://smali.googlecode.com/files/baksmali-1.4.2.jar
$ cd ~/Android/_framework
$ java -Xmx1024m -jar ../tools/baksmali-1.4.2.jar -a 17 -c core.jar:core-junit.jar:bouncycastle.jar:ext.jar:framework.jar:telephony-common.jar:mms-common.jar:android.policy.jar:services.jar:apache-xml.jar -x framework.odex
The parameter -a for baksmali refers to the API we are working with.
Generate out.dex with smali
Code:
$ cd ~/Android/tools
$ wget https://smali.googlecode.com/files/smali-1.4.2.jar
$ cd ~/Android/_framework
$ java -jar ../tools/smali-1.4.2.jar out
Get internal and hidden classes using dex2jar
Code:
$ cd ~/Android
$ wget https://dex2jar.googlecode.com/files/dex2jar-0.0.9.15.zip
$ unzip dex2jar-0.0.9.15.zip
$ rm dex2jar-0.0.9.15.zip
$ cd _framework/
$ ../tools/dex2jar-0.0.9.15/d2j-dex2jar.sh out.dex
$ unzip out-dex2jar.jar -d framework-classes
Add these classes to plataform's default android.jar
Code:
$ cd ~/Android
$ unzip sdk/platforms/android-17/android.jar -d custom-android
$ cp -r _framework/framework-classes/* custom-android/
$ rm -r _framework
$ cd custom-android
$ zip -r ../custom-android.jar *
$ cd ..
$ rm -r custom-android
Create new extended platform
Code:
$ cd ~/Android
$ cp -r sdk/platforms/android-17 platforms-internals/android-17-internals
$ mv custom-android.jar platforms-internals/android-17-internals/android.jar
$ vi platforms-internals/android-17-internals/build.prop
ro.build.version.release=4.2.2
ro.build.version.release=4.2.2.internal
$ ln -s ~/Android/platforms-internals/android-17-internals ~/Android/sdk/platforms/android-17-internals
I use a symlink for keep it a little organized
Hack ADT
Code:
$ cd ~/Android
$ unzip eclipse/plugins/com.android.ide.eclipse.adt_22.0.4.v201307151829--741630.jar -d hacked_adt
Go to right folder
Code:
$ cd hacked_adt/com/android/ide/eclipse/adt/internal/project/
Find file where is our desired string
Code:
$ strings -f -a -t x * | grep "android\/internal"
Edit with an hex editor
Code:
$ bless AndroidClasspathContainerInitializer.class &
Here we change the l for the x.
Replace original file making a backup
Code:
$ cd ~/Android
$ cp eclipse/plugins/com.android.ide.eclipse.adt_22.0.4.v201307151829--741630.jar eclipse/plugins/com.android.ide.eclipse.adt_22.0.4.v201307151829--741630.jar.original
$ cd hacked_adt/
$ zip -r ../eclipse/plugins/com.android.ide.eclipse.adt_22.0.4.v201307151829--741630.jar *
$ cd ..
$ rm -r hacked_adt
This worked for me... thanks E:V:A
I got just one error related to a dropbox class, but i think this is not important... hope that

lenieto3 said:
...Start an avd running the desired API to modify in this case API-17... This worked for me... I got just one error related to a dropbox class, but i think this is not important...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks and sorry for late reply. I'm very happy to hear these instructions still works with API-17! Could you also upload your hacked JAR somewhere so that people can save some time when experimenting?
I was just here to check-in and try to bump this thread to see if it is still useful to anyone.

E:V:A said:
Thanks and sorry for late reply. I'm very happy to hear these instructions still works with API-17! Could you also upload your hacked JAR somewhere so that people can save some time when experimenting?
I was just here to check-in and try to bump this thread to see if it is still useful to anyone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ive got access to ActivityManager's hidden methods.
I want to use the removeTask method, but it keeps saying that I dont have the REMOVE_TASKS permissions even though I added it to the manifest (and turned off lint).
Permission Denial: removeTask() from pid=9963, uid=10179 requires android.permission.REMOVE_TASKS

Does someone know if there are any automated tools to do/performs steps 1-9?
I'd like to see a tool to automatically pull (from phone), extract and create a compatible android.jar.
@Mohammad_Adib: Sorry, this is the wrong thread for those type of questions.

see this link stackoverflow.com|questions|30656933|android-system-framework-jar-files

[GUIDE] SManager - How to use Commands

Hi,
I want to learn some of the commands for use in SManager (Script Manager) for ANDROID.
https://sites.google.com/site/devwom/script-manager
Does anyone know a suitable thread with guide or commands for SManager? I tried searching the web and XDA but did not find anything myself.
Specifically I want to know the cmd line to start an app.
EDIT 1:
Spent a good few hours trying to google a solution but drawn a blank.......Maybe Shell Scripts for Linux are not same as for Android...?
I would like to be able to run a script that does the following:
Checks if a directory exists on the sdcard
then executes a command (renaming of 2 directories)
then starts a program
EDIT 2:
well a few emails with the author of SManager and I was able to write my first script to check if the app is running and then if not, to rename folders and start the other version of the app. (I have Navigon Europe as well as Navigon Australia and was looking for a solution to allow both to co exist on my One-X at the same time. As both apps share the same directory structure the issue was that starting one version would overwrite the critical files of the other).
Now with my script installed as a widget I can toggle between each version without problem.
Here is some useful information on shell language for others (credits to the author of SManager Devwom):
http://tldp.org/HOWTO/Bash-Prog-Intro-HOWTO.html
Here are some critical bits of info received during my emails with him:
Thanks a lot for your interest in SManager.
The requested commands is a mix between linux commands and android os commands.
To get info about each command you can search in google and select the preferred page.
But the commands available in each Android device depends on running rom.
To get all available commands in your device, simply execute a ls (lower case LS) in system directories, that is:
ls /system/bin
ls /system/sbin
ls /system/xbin
ls /system/usr/bin
ls /system/usr/sbin
ls /system/usr/xbin
These are the most common directories where binaries resides in android devices.
May be you also can have commands at:
ls /bin
ls /sbin
ls /usr/bin
ls /usr/sbin
usually android rooted roms have the well known busybox, to get a list all comands inside it simply execute
busybox
to get all installed packages (and running names) from your device you can execute:
pm list packages
to get info about running process
ps
or
ps aux
or
ps -aux
depending on ps version installed
If conditions are based on test bash command this command is a bit confused, because usually it is named as [, and other times it is built-in inside shell
read "test man page" to get a full list of test command flags.
To check if an app is running:
if [ -n "$(ps|grep os.tools.scriptmanager)" ] ; then
echo SManager is running
fi
To check if app is NOT running:
if [ -z "$(ps|grep os.tools.scriptmanager)" ] ; then
echo SManager is NOT running
fi
To check if a file exist:
if [ -e /sdcard/file ] ; then
echo /sdcard/file exists
fi
To check if a file exist and it is a directory:
if [ -d /sdcard/file ] ; then
echo /sdcard/file exists and is directory
fi
To rename a directory simply use mv command:
I hope you can build your script with this info.
Start app it is very easy but getting correct info to start app is a bit confused.
starting app uses "am command"
To get correct info to start app you should execute:
logcat |grep Starting
in a terminal on device
then go to launcher and launch desired app
then go back to the terminal and you will see a line with info about how to fill am command.
For example if you execute SManager
in
logcat|grep Starting
output you will see
I/ActivityManager(* 275): Starting: Intent { act=android.intent.action.MAIN cat=[android.intent.category.LAUNCHER] flg=0x10200000 cmp=os.tools.scriptmanager/.launcherActivity } from pid 377
so to start scriptmanager you need the following command
am start -a android.intent.action.MAIN -c android.intent.category.LAUNCHER -n os.tools.scriptmanager/.launcherActivity
I do not know how to stop apps from command line, I usually use killall command:
killall os.tools.scriptmanager
if you do not have killall command you can use grep and awk or cut commands
kill "$(ps|grep os.tools.scriptmanager|grep -v grep|awk '{print $2;}')"
or
kill "$(ps|grep os.tools.scriptmanager|grep -v grep|cut -f5 -d" ")"
may you need adjust -f5 flag
To execute script as shortcut install SMWidgets.
Scripts usually ends with last line , ie, not special action is required, it will exit with the last executed command return code
Also you can add
exit 0
or preferred exit value, but 0 usually means OK
To end script in the middle use
exit value
where value usually it is not 0
Also it is better use mv command instead rename command.
rename command it is not linux standard, but mv command is in all linux shells.
Android shell programing it is not equals to linux shell programming but this was one of my first scripting documents many years ago and it can be used as a guide. http://tldp.org/HOWTO/Bash-Prog-Intro-HOWTO.html
Best regards,
Devwom

Thanks, this is valuable information! It's a shame this thread didn't get more replies
I've been looking to change my wallpaper by script, but so far I haven't been succesful. With your guide, I guess I'm a step closer to my goals!

Hi.
Perhaps developer of smanager or any expert is reading...
I would like to write a script for 2 purposes. Both handle with samba share running on my ubuntu.
1st situation.: I would like to move my media, download and documents files from android to the desired folder on my Ubuntu, which is shared by samba in my LAN.
The goal is to start this script with just touching a widget.
2nd situation: I would like to copy files from my samba shared folder in ubuntu to a specific folder on sdcard in android. All files in folder on sdcard should be deleted before copying. Again just by touching a widget.
Shared folder on samba are with password and rw.
Till now I am doing it manually with esexplorer...
I would like to do it with script.
Sent from my Incredible S using xda app-developers app

Yet Another Bash for Android

After hunting around and not finding any dynamically linked Bash executable created using the NDK, I (as usual) decided to do it myself.
Here I give you dynamically linked bash 4.2 compiled using Crystax NDK r8, along with patches from http://dan.drown.org/android/src/bash/. The process to build it is documented on this page. The API version used was Android-8 (Froyo and upwards) and the toolchain used was gcc-4.7.
To use, place in any location where executables can run from (eg. /data/local/tmp or /data/data/jackpal.androidterm/app_HOME), gunzip it
Code:
gunzip bash.gz
, change permissions
Code:
chmod 755 bash
and run.
Please note that if you run it without root, it will give the following error message intermittently:
Code:
chdir: error retrieving current directory: getcwd: cannot access parent directories: Permission denied
This is because without root access, "/data" is inaccessible (Default permissions 771 with owner:group as "system:system").
As alternatives, there are statically linked bash binaries available from multiple sources, for example this by mzet.

[Tool][bin] Official Toybox for android

What is toybox?​
Toybox combines many common Linux command line utilities together into a single BSD-licensed executable. It's simple, small, fast, and reasonably standards-compliant.
Toybox's main goal is to make Android self-hosting by improving Android's command line utilities so it can build an installable Android Open Source Project image entirely from source under a stock Android system. After a talk at the 2013 Embedded Linux Conference explaining this plan (outline, video), Google merged toybox into AOSP and began shipping toybox in Android Mashmallow.
Toybox aims to provide one quarter of a theoretical "minimal native development environment", which is the simplest Linux system capable of rebuilding itself from source code and then building Linux From Scratch and the Android Open Source Project under the result. In theory, this should only require four packages:
1) Set of posix-ish command line utilities
2) Compiler
3) C library
4) Kernel.
This provides a reproducible and auditable base system, which with the addition of a few conveniences (vi, top, shell command line history...) can provide a usable interactive experience rather than just a headless build server.
Why is toybox?​
The 2015 toybox talk starts with links to three previous talks on the history and motivation of the project: "Why Toybox", "Why Public Domain", and "Why did I do Aboriginal Linux (which led me here)?". If you're really bored, there's even a half-finished a history page.
The toybox maintainer's earlier minimal self-hosting system project, Aboriginal Linux, got its minimal native development environment down to seven packages in its 1.0 release (busybox, uClibc, gcc, binutils, make, bash, and linux) and built Linux From Scratch under the result. That project was the reason toybox's maintainer became busybox maintainer, having done so much work to extend busybox to replace all the gnu tools in a Linux From Scratch build that the previous maintainer handed over the project (to spend more time on buildroot).
Despite the maintainer's history with busybox, toybox is a fresh from-scratch implementation under an android-compatible license. Busybox predates Android, but has never shipped with Android due to the license. As long as we're starting over anyway, we can do a better job.
These days, toybox is replacing busybox in Aboriginal Linux one command at a time, and each toybox release is regression tested by building Aboriginal Linux with it, then building Linux From Scratch under the result with the new toybox commands. The list of commands remaining is tracked in the roadmap, and the replacing busybox in Aboriginal Linux is one of the main goals for toybox' 1.0 release.
Building LFS requres fewer commands than building AOSP, which has a lot more build prerequisites. In theory some of those can be built from source as external packages (we're clearly not including our own java implementation), but some early prerequisites may need to be added to bootstrap AOSP far enough to build them (such as a read-only version of "git": how does repo download the AOSP source otherwise?)
Source: http://www.landley.net/toybox/about.html

Downloads:
http://www.landley.net/toybox/bin/
GitHub:
https://github.com/landley/toybox

In case

Busybox vs toybox, who's the best?

Armv7 build?
Inviato dal mio Nexus 4 con Tapatalk 2

Waiting armv7 build. Thanks

Very interesting project!!:good: I've been doing as much of my development that I can on Android, but this will be a way to keep it all localized! This is exactly what we need:victory:. Great development!!:good::highfive:
What's the time frame for a Armv7 build? (no rush, just anxious with anticipation)

Can anyone suggest me which one to download for moto x play

hello i have toybox on my marshmallow(low end device) , i want to how to make swapfile on the SD card(VRAM),(RAM runout fast) all apps for VRAM use busybox so they wont work
so ive tried ot use terminal shell with "swapon" but i guess i missing something, i searched all over the net didnt found to much on toybox
what command\string i need?
sorry if i am on the wrong thread and sorry for my bad English
PS
i can adjust my ZRAM but its zram its swapfile on the RAM also its limited to 0-200MB and i need more
thanks

I obtain this toybox from my Xperia m, cm 13 rom, from this path /sbin/toybox and this is for armv7 arch.
https://mega.nz/#!toURVICL!M7048C6RhYlhuZcoxXzvF5Zm7ALvZIql93asmysJas0

Any updates for this?
Sent from my ? LG G4 H811 ???

Deleted

ToyBox:
https://forum.xda-developers.com/android/software-hacking/tool-official-toybox-android-t3290884
BusyBox + ToyBox:
https://forum.xda-developers.com/an...zip-busybox-v1-26-2-flashable-binary-t3581875
download modif, BB 1.28.3, TB Armv7 build:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1jM4CMB3sF_wRvUaLv5n8hVkLA65glbZj/view?usp=drivesdk
use Terminal Emulator:
typing: busybox (enter)
typing: toybox (enter)

@Paget96
toybox does not require a separate dev developed binary for android devices like busybox does?
like meefik, stericson, osm0sis ones....!
Edit:- answer is here https://github.com/landley/toybox/issues/122

HemanthJabalpuri said:
@Paget96
toybox does not require a separate dev developed binary for android devices like busybox does?
like meefik, stericson, osm0sis ones....!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nope
Sent from my WAS-LX1 using Tapatalk

usage is sometimes different between toybox and busybox. since twrp has started replacing busybox with toybox some scripts won't work properly anymore. this mean sometimes it is necessary to port flashable zip (for example when awk is used). for those who want to test shell scripts on pc i share my little wrapper shell script for quick testing applets syntax

Code:
acpi arch ascii base64 basename blkid blockdev bunzip2 bzcat cal cat
catv chattr chgrp chmod chown chroot chrt chvt cksum clear cmp comm
count cp cpio crc32 cut date devmem df dirname dmesg dnsdomainname
dos2unix du echo egrep eject env expand factor fallocate false fgrep
file find flock fmt free freeramdisk fsfreeze fstype fsync ftpget
ftpput getconf grep groups gunzip halt head help hexedit hostname
hwclock i2cdetect i2cdump i2cget i2cset iconv id ifconfig inotifyd
insmod install ionice iorenice iotop kill killall killall5 link ln
logger login logname losetup ls lsattr lsmod lspci lsusb makedevs
mcookie md5sum microcom mix mkdir mkfifo mknod mkpasswd mkswap mktemp
modinfo mount mountpoint mv nbd-client nc netcat netstat nice nl nohup
nproc nsenter od oneit partprobe passwd paste patch pgrep pidof ping
ping6 pivot_root pkill pmap poweroff printenv printf prlimit ps pwd
pwdx readahead readlink realpath reboot renice reset rev rfkill rm
rmdir rmmod sed seq setfattr setsid sha1sum shred sleep sntp sort
split stat strings su swapoff swapon switch_root sync sysctl tac tail
tar taskset tee test time timeout top touch true truncate tty tunctl
ulimit umount uname uniq unix2dos unlink unshare uptime usleep uudecode
uuencode uuidgen vconfig vmstat w watch wc which who whoami xargs
xxd yes zcat
Do you plan to add dd and gzip?
Painfully they are missing.

posix [dd] Partially implemented
lsb <gzip> Not started yet
http://www.landley.net/toybox/status.html

Very usefult. It helps me.
Thank you very much

I have two Xiaomi phones with A11.
Both have /sytem/bin/toybox installed
Is it common that toybox is pre-installed by default?