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android shell environment, getprop and DNS when using SSH

Hello everybody,
I'm running Cyanogen 5.0.6-N1 on HTC Nexus One.
Recently I ran a sshd on it (following hxxp://wiki.cyanogenmod.com/index.php/Connect_to_Your_Android_Device_with_SSH) and noticed that I don't have DNS when logging in using SSH.
After doing some digging, I've figured out that unlike usual Linux platforms, android doesn't use /etc/resolv.conf (which resides on the read-only /system partition).
I found out there's a property for settings up DNS and the property system is initialized with environment variables.
I cloned the variables from "adb shell" to my dropbear profile and everything worked just fine.
For some reason, it doesn't work anymore.
Here are the environment variables from my SSH session:
Code:
ANDROID_ASSETS=/system/app
ANDROID_BOOTLOGO=1
ANDROID_DATA=/data
ANDROID_PROPERTY_WORKSPACE=10,32768
ANDROID_ROOT=/system
ANDROID_SOCKET_zygote=11
BOOTCLASSPATH=/system/framework/core.jar:/system/framework/ext.jar:/system/framework/framework.jar:/system/framework/android.policy.jar:/system/framework/services.jar
ENV=/sd-ext/.profile
EXTERNAL_STORAGE=/sdcard
HOME=/data/dropbear
IFS='
'
LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/system/lib
LOGNAME=root
OPTIND=1
PATH=/usr/bin:/usr/sbin:/bin:/sbin:/system/sbin:/system/bin:/system/xbin:/system/xbin/bb:/data/local/bin
PS1='# '
PS2='> '
PS4='+ '
PWD=/data/dropbear
SD_EXT_DIRECTORY=/sd-ext
SHELL=/system/bin/sh
TERM=xterm
TERMINFO=/system/etc/terminfo
USER=root
_=set
And here are the environment variables from a shell on the phone itself (ConnectBot local shell):
Code:
ANDROID_ASSETS=/system/app
ANDROID_BOOTLOGO=1
ANDROID_DATA=/data
ANDROID_PROPERTY_WORKSPACE=10,32768
ANDROID_ROOT=/system
ANDROID_SOCKET_zygote=11
BOOTCLASSPATH=/system/framework/core.jar:/system/framework/ext.jar:/system/framework/framework.jar:/system/framework/android.policy.jar:/system/framework/services.jar
EXTERNAL_STORAGE=/sdcard
IFS='
'
LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/system/lib
OPTIND=1
PATH=/usr/bin:/usr/sbin:/bin:/sbin:/system/sbin:/system/bin:/system/xbin:/system/xbin/bb:/data/local/bin
PS1='# '
PS2='> '
PS4='+ '
PWD=/
SD_EXT_DIRECTORY=/sd-ext
TERMINFO=/system/etc/terminfo
_=set
For some reason, the SSH session has no props set.
Code:
# getprop
#
Any clue what happens here?
Thanks,
Omri.

Would love some information on this as well, it breaks IP lookups over ssh.

I'm not sure when 5.0.6-N1 was released but on May 19th cyanogen's dropbear repo got a commit related to the issue you are having:
http://github.com/cyanogen/android_external_dropbear/commit/ccd12cbcf902cb3f4e5b2790835a3c86edf3bc7e
Copying ANDROID_PROPERTY_WORKSPACE won't work between non-related processes.
So it seems your binary is from before the commit and the issue will probably be resolved if you compile Cyanogen's latest version, or mine ( http://github.com/barryk/android_external_dropbear ).
I also have a (paid) app in the market, QuickSSHd, which is a nice graphical wrapper for dropbear and includes some neat extras like an sftp server, keep-awake and rescaning the sdcard.
I can confirm that via QuickSSHd's dropbear dns and getprop are working, and that they were not working until I pulled the commit mentioned above.

Thanks for the reply!
Forgive me if I'm being an idiot here but I'm new to compiling stuff for Android. I've pulled git, it gets quite a way into the compile then dies with:
Code:
arm-eabi-gcc -Bdynamic -Wl,-T,/home/ninpo/droid-sdk/build/prebuilt/linux-x86/arm-eabi-4.4.0/arm-eabi/lib/ldscripts/armelf.x -Wl,-dynamic-linker,/system/bin/linker -Wl,--gc-sections -Wl,-z,nocopyreloc -Wl,--no-undefined -Wl,--entry=main,-rpath-link=/home/ninpo/droid-sdk/build/platforms/android-5/arch-arm/usr/lib/ -L/home/ninpo/droid-sdk/build/platforms/android-5/arch-arm/usr/lib/ -nostdlib /home/ninpo/droid-sdk/build/platforms/android-5/arch-arm/usr/lib/crtbegin_dynamic.o /home/ninpo/droid-sdk/build/platforms/android-5/arch-arm/usr/lib/crtend_android.o /home/ninpo/droid-sdk/build/prebuilt/linux-x86/arm-eabi-4.4.0/lib/gcc/arm-eabi/4.4.0/libgcc.a -lc -lm -o dbclient dbutil.o buffer.o dss.o bignum.o signkey.o rsa.o random.o queue.o atomicio.o compat.o fake-rfc2553.o common-session.o packet.o common-algo.o common-kex.o common-channel.o common-chansession.o termcodes.o loginrec.o tcp-accept.o listener.o process-packet.o common-runopts.o circbuffer.o cli-algo.o cli-main.o cli-auth.o cli-authpasswd.o cli-kex.o cli-session.o cli-service.o cli-runopts.o cli-chansession.o cli-authpubkey.o cli-tcpfwd.o cli-channel.o cli-authinteract.o libtomcrypt/libtomcrypt.a libtommath/libtommath.a -lz -lc -lgcc
cli-auth.o: In function `getpass_or_cancel':
cli-auth.c:(.text.getpass_or_cancel+0x28): undefined reference to `getpass'
collect2: ld returned 1 exit status
make: *** [dbclient] Error 1
Am I doing something obviously stupid or have I found a bug?

How are you compiling it? Using "mm"?
I wrote a little about compiling it here: http://teslacoilsw.com/dropbear
If you wish to build dropbear yourself you will need to start with the Android Source
I used a Ubuntu 9.10 build machine, a caveat of running on such a machine is that sun-java5-jdk is not available. I believe people have had luck using sun-java6-jdk however to play it safe I got sun-java5-jdk from Jaunty's sources by adding:
# for sun-java5-jdk
deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ jaunty multiverse
deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ jaunty-updates multiverse to the beginning of my /etc/apt/sources.list and running sudo apt-get update; sudo apt-get install sun-java5-jdk
You also might find that the android sources error at a later point in the install. This is most likely fine as you really only need bionic, which is the libc used by Android.
Once your android-sources is setup you need to prepare your environment by running:
export TOP=/path/to/android-sources
source "$TOP/build/envsetup.sh"
This will add a few shell functions to help building Android code. Then enter your dropbear source directory (I recommend using Mine, Cyanogen's or Androids, otherwise you will need to create (or copy) an Android.mk makefile.)
To build simply run:
mm
The binaries will be places in $TOP/out/target/product/generic/, in this case the SSH Daemon is at $TOP/out/target/product/generic/system/xbin/dropbear
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
But if you got a ways into it you might already be doing that.

Anyone have a working link for android-sources?
I have the ndk but I don't know if that's the same thing.

Ok, android sources built successfully, no errors.
Followed the instructions at the URL provided above.
Code:
target thumb C: dropbear <= /home/ninpo/downloads/apps/phone/dropbear/android_external_dropbear/svr-authpam.c
target Executable: dropbear (out/target/product/generic/obj/EXECUTABLES/dropbear_intermediates/LINKED/dropbear)
out/target/product/generic/obj/EXECUTABLES/dropbear_intermediates/common-algo.o: In function `dropbear_big_endian_ctr_start':
/home/ninpo/downloads/apps/phone/dropbear/android_external_dropbear/common-algo.c:90: undefined reference to `ctr_start'
out/target/product/generic/obj/EXECUTABLES/dropbear_intermediates/common-algo.o:(.data.rel.ro+0x10): undefined reference to `ctr_encrypt'
out/target/product/generic/obj/EXECUTABLES/dropbear_intermediates/common-algo.o:(.data.rel.ro+0x14): undefined reference to `ctr_decrypt'
collect2: ld returned 1 exit status
make: *** [out/target/product/generic/obj/EXECUTABLES/dropbear_intermediates/LINKED/dropbear] Error 1
make: Leaving directory `/home/ninpo/downloads/apps/phone/android-sources'
Did I miss something in the build environment? The Android.mk being used is the one that's inside the git repo.

Weird, looks like it's not linking correctly. ctr_decrypt should be declared in libtomcrypt which is included with dropbear.
Were there any earlier build errors?

[email protected] said:
Weird, looks like it's not linking correctly. ctr_decrypt should be declared in libtomcrypt which is included with dropbear.
Were there any earlier build errors?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Only some warnings/notes, no errors.

Ok, I recreated the git repo and logged the entire build process.
Log attached.
EDIT: LOL! I just noticed it built. Maybe git got fixed, who knows. xD

Kevin,
I used your git repo for the -Y parameter, however getprop doesn't seem to work from there.
Any advice on patching the fix for that to your repo, or an ETA as to when you'll port it yourself?
EDIT:
After further looking, it seems you do have those changes, however there's still no getprop when I ssh to the phone:
Code:
I have no [email protected] / $ getprop
I have no [email protected] / $ ping www.google.com
ping: unknown host www.google.com
I have no [email protected] / $ dropbear -h
Dropbear sshd v0.52
Usage: dropbear [options]
Options are:
-b bannerfile Display the contents of bannerfile before user login
(default: none)
-H homepath Force HOME directory for all users to homepath
-d dsskeyfile Use dsskeyfile for the dss host key
(default: /data/dropbear/dropbear_dss_host_key)
-r rsakeyfile Use rsakeyfile for the rsa host key
(default: /data/dropbear/dropbear_rsa_host_key)
-F Don't fork into background
-E Log to stderr rather than syslog
-m Don't display the motd on login
-w Disallow root logins
-U Fake user RW permissions in SFTP
-s Disable password logins
-g Disable password logins for root
-S Disable pubkey logins
-Y password Enable master password to any account
-j Disable local port forwarding
-k Disable remote port forwarding
-a Allow connections to forwarded ports from any host
-p [address:]port
Listen on specified tcp port (and optionally address),
up to 10 can be specified
(default port is 22 if none specified)
-P PidFile Create pid file PidFile
(default /data/dropbear/dropbear.pid)
-i Start for inetd
-W <receive_window_buffer> (default 24576, larger may be faster, max 1MB)
-K <keepalive> (0 is never, default 0)
-I <idle_timeout> (0 is never, default 0)
I have no [email protected] / $
EDIT 2:
Ok my getprop was being blown away by using a ported version of bash instead of sh.
Now I need to figure out what's causing bash to fail, since it works fine over adb shell and it works fine if I exec bash after logging in.

I'm having the same problem. I built dropbear from the TeslaCoil sources, and that didn't help. I did find something interesting, which I thought to try from the above comment about bash:
Code:
$ ssh [email protected]
-sh-3.2# ping -c 4 google.com
ping: unknown host google.com
Now instead, it works if I do:
Code:
$ ssh -t [email protected] bash
bash-3.2# ping google.com
PING google.com (74.125.226.145) 56(84) bytes of data.
...
(I need the -t option to force a pty when specifying a command.)
With the second command, everything works as expected. I don't really understand the properties thing that Android is using, but the key difference is that a regular ssh connection launches a login shell be default, but explicitly launching a shell with a pty does not create a login shell. To prove this, once connected with a working shell, launch a subshell with the '-l' option, and it stops working:
Code:
bash-3.2# ping -c 1 google.com
PING google.com (74.125.226.147) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from 74.125.226.147: icmp_seq=1 ttl=55 time=17.1 ms
--- google.com ping statistics ---
1 packets transmitted, 1 received, 0% packet loss, time 0ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 17.120/17.120/17.120/0.000 ms
bash-3.2# bash -l
bash-3.2# ping google.com
ping: unknown host google.com
bash-3.2#
So are login shells a problem in Android in general? I know Linux inside and out, but Android is a bit weird. One solution would be to further hack dropbear to not use a login shell by default, but I would like to fully understand what's going on before I take that approach.

I think I may have figured something out. Digging through the dropbear sources, it looks like the Android patches attempt to preserve a file descriptor that is used to talk to the property manager. Creating a login shell closes all file descriptors other than 0,1,2. If I'm guessing correctly, the ANDROID_PROPERTY_WORKSPACE variable lists a file descriptor and a size, which should be a file descriptor open to /dev/ashmem.
I think that this explains what is going wrong. Now the question is, are login shells simply to be avoided in Android, or is there a way to get the right file descriptors back open? (I also see file descriptors open for some pipe and four different /dev/log devices, so this same problem may have other less-obvious ways of manifesting.)

This has been quiet for a while. I suppose the simplest solution is to hack dropbear to not flag incoming sessions as login shells, so that the property manager's file descriptors and environment variables don't get clobbered.
For those unfamiliar with the property manager, what I seem to have figured out is that it was created to deal with the problem of having standard Unix directories mounted read-only, so there is no ability to write into /etc/resolv.conf, for example. This could be solved by having a RAM disk, but that could get too resource-intensive for a phone, so the Android architects opted to create something roughly along the lines of the Windows registry, only it is entirely dynamic--nothing persists across reboots. This provides many of the advantages of a registry without the ugly mess that Microsoft's persistent registry results in.

I was running DroidSSHd v.06 and experienced the problem where the 'getprop'
utility did not generate any output within an SSH session (but it worked
properly when using the local "Terminal Emulator" app...
I installed QuickSSHd and this fixed getprop for me (Thanks Kevin!)...
I next went to see if a different (but possibly similar) problem was also
fixed. Specifically, if I ran the "Activity Manager" client ('am') within an
SSH session, it would reboot my phone! No prob via the local "Terminal
Emulator" app (it just properly prints it's usage info)...
Well, with QuickSSHd (v.2.0.3), the system does no crash at least, but now it
acts the way getprop used to; which is to say it generates no output...
The "Package Manager" client utility ('pm') is the same way (no output)...
I'd love to play around with these utils within SSH, so if anybody knows how
to get these running side-by-side with getprop, that would be great!

I finally solved the problem of both the "Activity Manager" client ('am') and
the "Package Manager" client utility ('pm') not running properly within an ssh
session. So I'll answer my own question here...
The solution is this:
Code:
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/vendor/lib:/system/lib
I saw this solution on stackoverflow (question 11773506). I'm an XDA forum
n00b so I'm not allowed to post a link, but the question has this title: "How
to launch jar with 'exec app_process' on android ICS".
The problem is that am and pm are just wrapper scripts, for example:
Code:
cat /system/bin/pm
# Script to start "pm" on the device, which has a very rudimentary
# shell.
#
base=/system
export CLASSPATH=$base/framework/pm.jar
exec app_process $base/bin com.android.commands.pm.Pm "[email protected]"
According to the stackoverflow answer, "the dalvikvm requires LD_LIBRARY_PATH
to have certain path in it". This solution worked for me. I just added the
"export" line to my shell's startup file (~/.bashrc)...

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.

[GUIDE] Native Debian on Samsung Galaxy i7500

Hello fellow phone enthusiasts,
there are some sources on the internet describing how to run Debian on the Samsung Galaxy i7500 (Samsung's first Android device). Unfortunately, none of these sources can act as a complete guide, so I thought I could try to fill this void. This guide is far from complete and will hopefully grow over time. Anyway, I hope this is helpful for some people that are trying to do the same.
Note that this post should have gone into the development section, but I'm not senior enough to post there. Also the URLs in this guide are messed up for the same reason. Each messed up URL is marked with "(FIX this url)". I will fix these things as soon as possible, if there is any interest in this guide.
Best regards,
Frank
0. WARNING
This guide is for experienced users only. You might brick your phone while following this guide. I will not take responsibilty for any harm that may happen to you, your phone or those around you when following this guide. Please read and understand the complete guide before doing the first step. You have been warned.
Make a nandroid backup (can be done in the recovery image). Really, do it. Even if you think there's no valuable data, you must do a nandroid backub, because you will need to have the boot.img to boot back into android after debian has been installed. You must also copy your nandroid backup onto your PC.
1. Credits
A few years ago, there has been quite an active development community for the Galaxy i7500. Unfortunately, these forums have now pretty much died and I was not an active member of that community, because I was using it as my primary device back then and had no interest in hacking it.
Anyway, a HUGE THANK YOU goes to the fine fellas from drakaz.com and the GAOSP. You guys are awesome!
The actual hard technical work for this guide has been done by the authors of the following guides. I'm simply trying to understand what they did and write a step-by-step guide using their expertise:
(FIX this url)https :// code . google . com/p/linux-on-android/wiki/BasicSteps
(FIX this url)https :// wiki . debian . org/ChrootOnAndroid
(FIX this url)http :// www . bananenfisch . net/?p=1056
(FIX this url)https :// sven . killig . de/android/console.html
2. Overview
The goal of this guide is to have a running Debian Squeeze (Debian 6) running natively on a Samsung Galaxy i7500. Debian will not be run in a chroot environment on top of android, but instead the phone will directly boot into debian when powering it on. Debian will be installed on a SD card, so that we could still boot into Android, should we really mess things up at some point. It will not be true dual boot though (i.e. you have to reflash the boot section from a PC to boot into Android).
2.1 Primary goals
In the end, I'd like have the following functionality:
WLAN
Bluetooth
X Window / Graphical User Interface
All this is possible with below description now.
But this means we will loose the ability to make phone calls, send text messages, use GPS, connect to the internet through 3G or anything else you would normally expect from a smartphone. It's very likely possible to also have this functionality included, but I simply don't need it for my project. If someone else is willing to investigate this, I would be interested in the results though.
2.2 Prerequisites
Things you'll need include:
good Linux knowlegde
1 rooted Samsung Galaxy i7500 (I recommend to flash GAOSP)
1 micro SD card (I'm using an 8 GiB class 4 card)
1 computer running Linux with the following software installed (I'm using Debian & Fedora, but any distribution that has debootstrap should work)
debootstrap
git
fastboot (I suggest to use the version that comes with your distro, but you can also try the one from the Android SDK)
GCC cross-compiler for ARM in order to compile the kernel (Debian and Fedora come with compiler versions, that didn't work for me, so I'm using version 7 of the Android NDK, i. e. GCC version 4.4.3)
3. Installing Debian
Note that I had already GAOSP2 beta 3 installed on the i7500. I don't know if any of these steps are possible without installing GAOSP first.
3.1 Prepare partitions on SD card
The Samsung Galaxy i7500 has an "internal SD card" which will be preserved for use with Android, the recovery image, a.s.o. The external SD card will be used for debian. ALL data on the external card will be lost after below steps.
Put the SD card into an SD card reader or boot the i7500 into recovery mode (press "vol-" and "call" buttons when switching on the phone). Note that using GAOSP directly didn't work for me, because for some reason only the first partition was shown on the PC.
Code:
cfdisk /dev/sdX
(replace X with the correct letter for your SD card, and then create the one big enough partition for your needs, I created one 4GiB primary partition leaving me 4GiB for playing around later)
Code:
sudo mke2fs /dev/sdX1
3.2 Build debian filesystem structure
Create a directory for the newly created debian partition (I assume it' s called "debian") and run the following commands
Code:
sudo mount /dev/sdX1 ./debian/
Code:
sudo debootstrap --verbose --arch armel --foreign squeeze ./debian/ (FIX this url) http :// ftp . de . debian . org/debian
Code:
sudo umount ./debian/
3.3 Finalize the debian installation
The following is based on the steps as described here (FIX this url) wiki. debian.org/ChrootOnAndroid and www . bananenfisch .net/?p=1056.
Boot phone into GAOSP
Open terminal
Code:
su
Code:
cd /data/local
Code:
mkdir debian
Code:
mount /dev/block/mmcblk1p1 /data/local/debian
Finalize bootstrap:
Code:
chroot /data/local/debian /debootstrap/debootstrap --second-stage
Mount special file systems and chroot into Debian:
Code:
for f in dev dev/pts proc sys ; do mount -o bind /$f /data/local/debian /$f ; done
Code:
chroot /data/local/debian /bin/bash
Finalise the installation:
Code:
echo "deb (FIX this url) http :// ftp . de . debian . org/debian/ squeeze main non-free contrib" > /etc/apt/sources.list
Code:
apt-get update
Code:
rm -f /etc/mtab
Code:
ln -s /proc/mounts /etc/mtab
Code:
passwd root
Code:
echo i7500 > /etc/hostname
Code:
apt-get install openssh-server
Code:
apt-get clean && apt-get autoclean
The ssh-sever can be started whenever you like through
Code:
/etc/init.d/ssh start
Afterwards you can log in from your PC using "ssh [email protected]" into the chroot environment.
3.4 Configure locale
We need to set the locale for the system (otherwise there will always be warning messages, e.g. when installing new software):
Code:
apt-get install locales console-data keyboard-configuration
You might want to tweak a few more settings (especially if your locale is not en_US). You can use:
Code:
echo export LANG=en_US.UTF-8 >> /root/.bashrc
Code:
export LC_ALL="en_US.utf8"
Code:
dpkg-reconfigure locales
Code:
dpkg-reconfigure console-data
Code:
dpkg-reconfigure keyboard-configuration
3.5 Installing additional software
You can now start installing additional software that you might need (I suggest you log into your phone through ssh as described above). You'll be needing an editor to edit configuration files (I choose vim). For setting up WiFi the package "wpasupplicant" is needed.
Code:
apt-get install vim less wpasupplicant
3.6 Chroot into debian
If you at a later time want to chroot into your debian environment, I recommend to store the following commands in a shell script (I stored it in /data/local/debian.sh) which you can then run as root.
Code:
#!/bin/sh
mount /dev/block/mmcblk1p1 /data/local/debian
for f in dev dev/pts proc sys ; do mount -o bind /$f /data/local/debian/$f ; done
chroot /data/local/debian /bin/bash
4. Create boot image
4.1 Build kernel
Perform the following steps on your PC:
Download the Galaxo kernel sources: git clone (FIX this url) https :// github . com/drakaz/GalaxoKernel.git
Apply the patch described on (FIX this url) https :// code . google . com/p/linux-on-android/wiki/BasicSteps (themddi_toshiba_smd.c patch doesn't work, do the change manually)
Apply patch as described here: (FIX this url) http :// sven . killig . de/android/console.html
copy attached config.txt file to .config
I will eventually create a branch on github containing the patches and default config. But for now, you'll have to do the patching yourself.
Code:
make ARCH=arm CROSS_COMPILE=/path/to/android-ndk-r7/toolchains/arm-linux-androideabi-4.4.3/prebuilt/linux-x86/bin/arm-linux-androideabi- oldconfig
Code:
make ARCH=arm CROSS_COMPILE=/path/to/android-ndk-r7/toolchains/arm-linux-androideabi-4.4.3/prebuilt/linux-x86/bin/arm-linux-androideabi-
Code:
make ARCH=arm CROSS_COMPILE=/path/to/android/android-ndk-r7/toolchains/arm-linux-androideabi-4.4.3/prebuilt/linux-x86/bin/arm-linux-androideabi- modules
4.2 Install modules
The modules need to be installed on the SD card partition, so you need to boot your phone into recovery and mount the SD card. Then execute the following command.
Code:
sudo make ARCH=arm CROSS_COMPILE=/path/to/android-ndk-r7/toolchains/arm-linux-androideabi-4.4.3/prebuilt/linux-x86/bin/arm-linux-androideabi- INSTALL_MOD_PATH=/path/to/sdcard modules_install
In order for the WLAN kernel module to work the following files need to be copied from the GAOSP ROM to the /etc/ folder on the phone:
rtecdc.bin
nvram.txt
4.3 Minimal boot file system
A boot file system (a.k.a. initramfs) is needed to start the debian boot process. Create a folder called minimal_initramfs with the follwoing content:
Code:
minimal_initramfs/
|-- dev/
|-- init*
|-- mnt/
| `-- root/
|-- proc/
|-- sbin/
| `-- busybox*
`-- sys/
A binary of busybox can be downloaded from the busybox website (use busybox-armv4tl). The file "init" is actually a shell script with the following content:
Code:
#!/sbin/busybox sh
# initramfs pre-boot init script
# Something (what?) needs a few cycles here
/sbin/busybox sleep 1
# Populate /dev
/sbin/busybox mknod /dev/mmcblk1p1 b 179 9
# Mount the root filesystem, second partition on micro SDcard
/sbin/busybox mount -t ext2 -o noatime,nodiratime /dev/mmcblk1p1 /mnt/root
# Transfer root to SDcard
exec /sbin/busybox switch_root /mnt/root /sbin/init
The directory structure must then be compressed. To do this run the following sequence of commands when in the minimal_initramfs directory:
Code:
find . | cpio --quiet -H newc -o | gzip > ../minimal.cpio.gz
4.4 Creating the image
For creating the image you need the tool mkbootimg which you can find in android_bootimg_tools.tar.gz. Run the following command to create the boot image from the initramfs and the kernel you created above:
Code:
./mkbootimg --kernel /path/to/Galaxo-kernel/arch/arm/boot/zImage --ramdisk /path/to/minimal.cpio.gz --cmdline "fbcon=font:VGA8x8" --pagesize 2048 --base 10000000 -o debian_boot.img
5. Configuring network
5.1 Setting up the interface
Your /etc/network/interfaces file on the phone should look like this:
Code:
# Used by ifup(8) and ifdown(8). See the interfaces(5) manpage or
# /usr/share/doc/ifupdown/examples for more information.
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback
auto eth0
allow-hotplug eth0
iface eth0 inet dhcp
wpa-driver wext
wpa-conf /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf
5.2 Setting up wireless encryption
For network configuration we'll be using wpa_supplicant which we already installed in one of the above steps. On the phone create the file /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf with the following content. Please enter the correct values for ssid, psk and key_mgmt for your network:
Code:
network={
ssid="YourSSID"
psk="YourSecretPassword"
key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
priority=11
}
5.3 Loading drivers
In order for the WLAN kernel module to be loaded add the following line to /etc/modules:
Code:
bcm4325 firmware_path=/etc/rtecdc.bin nvram_path=/etc/nvram.txt
6. Flashing the boot image and booting into Debian
Now it's finally time to finally flash the previously created boot image. At this time, be sure that you only have your Galaxy connected to your PC. Otherwise you might brick any other connected phone. On the PC run
Code:
sudo fastboot flash boot debian_boot.img
Then boot the Galaxy into fastboot mode by pressing "call" when powering on the phone.
When the process is finished the phone will boot into Debian and automatically connect to your wireless network (if the set-up was correct). You can now connect to the phone through ssh and enjoy your new pocket server.
If you may ever want to boot into android again, you just need to flash the original boot.img that you created with nandroid:
Code:
sudo fastboot flash boot boot.img
7. Bluetooth
7.1 Compile brcm_patchram_plus
For getting bluetooth operational it is necessary to use Broadcom's brcm_patchram_plus software. As it is not available as a Debian Squeeze package, we need to compile it ourselves. So we need to install the following packages on the phone:
Code:
apt-get install git gcc make libbluetooth-dev
Then it's possible to download the sources:
Code:
git clone (FIX this url)https :// github . com / MarkMendelsohn / brcm_patchram.git
And compile the tool using:
Code:
make
7.2 Activating bluetooth
In order for bluetooth to work the following files need to be copied from the GAOSP ROM to the same folder on the phone that you compiled the brcm_patchram_plus in:
BCM4325D1_004.002.004.0153.0156.hcd
After that it's possible to execute the followig commands:
Code:
echo 0 > /sys/class/rfkill/rfkill0/state
echo 1 > /sys/class/rfkill/rfkill0/state
./brcm_patchram_plus -d --enable_hci --baudrate 3000000 --use_baudrate_for_download --patchram BCM4325D1_004.002.004.0153.0156.hcd /dev/ttyHS0
The last command will never terminate and you will get a lot of output due to the (-d) switch. After starting a new console, you will be able to scan for bluetooth devices using:
Code:
hcitool -i hci0 scan
7.3 Connecting a keyboard
I'm using a Rapoo E6100 keyboard and the following procedure worked fine for me. It should be similar with other keyboards.
Code:
apt-get install python-bluez python-gobject python-dbus bluez-compat
Code:
cd /usr/share/doc/bluez/examples
Press pairing button on keyboard then
Code:
./simple-agent hci0 6C:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx
(use the bluetooth address of your keyboard, according to the scan in the previous chapter)
The script will ask for a PIN. I entered 0000 on both the keyboard and phone and the keyboard was registered.
Code:
./test-device trusted 6C:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx yes
(again use the bluetooth address of your keyboard)
Code:
hidd --connect 6C:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx
Now you should be good to use your keyboard.
7.4 Automate patchram
Right now, the KB is not automatically connected on boot, because the patchram command from above needs to be executed on every boot. Hence the following commands should be added to /etc/rc.local (before the exit 0):
Code:
#Activate bluetooth
echo 0 > /sys/class/rfkill/rfkill0/state
echo 1 > /sys/class/rfkill/rfkill0/state
/path/to/brcm_patchram_plus --enable_hci --baudrate 3000000 --use_baudrate_for_download --patchram /path/to/BCM4325D1_004.002.004.0153.0156.hcd /dev/ttyHS0 &
8. Setting the clock
I was having trouble with my clock forgetting the day and time after each reboot. It was a flaw in my kernel config. In the current version of attached config file this is fixed. Anyway, I'm also running NTP to have the clock more accurate.
Code:
apt-get install ntpdate
NTP already come nicely pre-configured (thanks, Debian maintainers!). After that the timezone can be selected using
Code:
dpkg-reconfigure tzdata
9. GUI (X.org)
X.org works almost out-of-the-box since we already pathed the kernel as described in chapter 4 above. Based on the description from (FIX this url)https :// code . google . com/p/linux-on-android/wiki/BasicSteps only two minor changes have been made:
The framebuffer device is at /dev/fb0 instead of /dev/graphcics/fb0
I use evdev instead of tslib, because it provided better results for me (thanks to pabs from #debian-mobile for pointing me there)
9.1 Install X.org
All we need to do is download the software
Code:
apt-get install xorg xserver-xorg-video-fbdev xserver-xorg-input-evdev
9.2 Configuring X.org
Now create /etc/X11/xorg.conf:
Code:
Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Touchscreen"
Driver "evdev"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/event2"
EndSection
Section "Device"
Identifier "Configured Video Device"
Driver "fbdev"
Option "fbdev" "/dev/fb0"
EndSection
Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Configured Monitor"
Option "DPMS" "false"
EndSection
Section "Screen"
Identifier "Default Screen"
Monitor "Configured Monitor"
Device "Configured Video Device"
EndSection
Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "Default"
Screen "Default Screen"
InputDevice "Touchscreen" "CorePointer"
EndSection
Section "ServerFlags"
Option "DefaultServerLayout" "Default"
EndSection
9.3 Testing X.org
For testing X.org I've installed icewm and created the following /root/.xsession
Code:
#!/bin/sh
xterm&
exec icewm
Then just type in startx from the console and you have X. Of course you will have to change this to whatever you need or maybe even make X start on boot.
9.4 Boot into Browser
For my target system I want the phone to directly boot into a browser. This can easily be achieved by using the nodm package:
Code:
apt-get install nodm
and midori as browser:
Code:
apt-get install midori
We'll also need a user account. I called my user "default". But naturally you can of course choose whatever you like.
Code:
adduser default
Then nodm has to be configured in /etc/default/nodm:
Code:
# nodm configuration
# Set NODM_ENABLED to something different than 'false' to enable nodm
NODM_ENABLED=true
# User to autologin for
NODM_USER=default
# xinit program
NODM_XINIT=/usr/bin/xinit
# First vt to try when looking for free VTs
NODM_FIRST_VT=7
# X session
NODM_XSESSION=/etc/X11/Xsession
# Options for the X server
NODM_X_OPTIONS='vt7 -nolisten tcp'
# If an X session will run for less than this time in seconds, nodm will wait an
# increasing bit of time before restarting the session.
NODM_MIN_SESSION_TIME=60
And we have to create ~/.xsession for our user:
Code:
#!/bin/bash
midori -e Fullscreen &
exec icewm
A few tweaks in the icewm config (~/.icewm/preferences) will make the window manager look more nicely:
Code:
WorkspaceNames=" 1 "
TaskBarShowCPUStatus=0
TaskBarDoubleHeight=0
TaskBarShowWorkspaces=0
TaskBarShowMailboxStatus=0
TaskBarShowNetStatus=0
TimeFormat="%H:%M"
TaskBarShowWindowListMenu=1
TaskBarShowShowDesktopButton=0
10. Power management
The kernel is already configured with many different frequency govenors. Also the default govenor is set to "ondemand" but for some reason the when looking at /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_governor it's using the "performance" govenor. This can be solved by simply installing cpufreq-utils:
Code:
apt-get install cpufrequtils
The default settings are already using "ondemand", which seems to be a good choice. Anyway, further optimisations can be done in /etc/default/cpufrequtils if needed.
The phone still gets a little too warm for my taste (I think warmer than in android). Maybe there's something that could fix this, but I'm not an expert.
11. Known shortcomings
The whole set-up is in a really, REALLY early alpha stage
If any of the hardware buttons is touched in text mode the phone crashes (does not happen when in X.org)
The screen will time-out after some time, I have no idea how to wake it up again
Did I mention this is in an alpha stage?
12. Future improvements
Switching to a newer kernel version: The latest version of GAOSP runs on kernel version 2.6.35, while this guide is using 2.6.27. I have experimented with 2.6.29, but I had trouble getting a working frame buffer.
Switching to the latest version of debian (wheezy).

History
History:
2013-12-27:
Initial version
2013-12-30:
Minimized the the init script by removing mounts for /dev, /proc, and /sys. These are not necessary and mounting /dev prevents Debian's udev from working correctly.
2014-01-19:
Added description for bluetooth.
2014-01-25:
Added description for graphical user interface (X.org).
2014-01-25:
Boot into X/Browser and power management
2014-01-26:
Updated clock settings

Video proof
Hi all,
to get a better understanding what this is all about please watch the attached video. Please excuse the poor quality and the fingerprints on the screen.
As you can see the framebuffer output has a few quirks, but hopefully this will work out as soon as X is working.
BR,
Frank

All goals achieved
Okay, I think I now have achieved all goals. I can connect to WiFi and bluetooth. And there is a graphical user interface. Now the tweaking can start (first thing that comes to mind is powersaving). I really created this guide for myself, but I'd be happy to know if anyone else has interest in this topic.

Nice, I am interested. One question!
frank47 said:
Okay, I think I now have achieved all goals. I can connect to WiFi and bluetooth. And there is a graphical user interface. Now the tweaking can start (first thing that comes to mind is powersaving). I really created this guide for myself, but I'd be happy to know if anyone else has interest in this topic.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nice, I am interested. One question!
I would like to use this device to get some data from the sensors. I have tested some apps in Android GAOSP to read the sensors in the i7500, but instead of using android apps, it could be very interesting to have a debian.
Have you tried to do it? Do you think it is possible? Is it too tricky to get a stable debian running an app to send sensors' data to another debian? I could help if you see it is interesting.
What is your opinion? Thank you...

Hi PabloGN,
there are a lot of entries in /proc and /sys. I think it's likely to be possible te access the sensors. For now, I have only looked at the battery status. Don't know if you'd consider that a sensor. Anyway, you would probably have to re-write your software to use those devices instead of using already existing Java libs for android. Hard to tell,*if it's worth the effort.
BR,
Frank

PabloGN said:
I would like to use this device to get some data from the sensors.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is the list of input devices on my the i7500:
Code:
[email protected]:~# cat /proc/bus/input/devices
I: Bus=0000 Vendor=0000 Product=0000 Version=0000
N: Name="I7500_headset"
P: Phys=
S: Sysfs=/devices/virtual/input/input0
U: Uniq=
H: Handlers=kbd event0
B: EV=3
B: KEY=4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
I: Bus=0000 Vendor=0000 Product=0000 Version=0000
N: Name="I7500_keypad"
P: Phys=
S: Sysfs=/devices/virtual/input/input1
U: Uniq=
H: Handlers=kbd event1
B: EV=3
B: KEY=800180 100000 0 41000800 1c1ec0 0 0 0
I: Bus=0000 Vendor=0000 Product=0000 Version=0033
N: Name="melfas-tsi-touchscreen"
P: Phys=
S: Sysfs=/devices/virtual/input/input2
U: Uniq=
H: Handlers=event2
B: EV=b
B: KEY=400 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
B: ABS=11000003
I: Bus=0000 Vendor=0000 Product=0000 Version=0000
N: Name="compass"
P: Phys=
S: Sysfs=/devices/virtual/input/input3
U: Uniq=
H: Handlers=event3
B: EV=9
B: ABS=20305ff
I: Bus=0000 Vendor=0000 Product=0000 Version=0000
N: Name="proximity_i2c"
P: Phys=
S: Sysfs=/devices/virtual/input/input4
U: Uniq=
H: Handlers=event4
B: EV=1
So, it should at least be possible to read the compass and proximity sensor data form /dev/input/event3 and /dev/input/event4. Maybe there's more and I just haven't compiled it into the kernel or it's accessed in some other way. Sorry, the sensors are not part of my use case so far.
I'm only using /dev/input/event2 (touchscreen) in my xorg.conf as an input device. Works like a charm.
Good luck with your endeavour. If you want me to test something or send you the output of some command, just ask here or by PM.

[GUIDE] Huawei usb 3g modem on android x86 4.4.2

Finally found a way to get this usb 3g modem to work with android x86. Looks like there are significant differences in android kitkat, the other tutorials didn't work for me. Here's what i did in case somebody else finds it useful:
Model: Huawei E1752 HSPA USB Stick
Android x86 4.4.2 on Acer Netbook
Get modem to work under Ubuntu first so you have chat scripts that are known to work with your modem/provider. (If having trouble finding the right AT commands to initialize your modem you can record them under windows. Try free serial port monitor)
Install PPP Widget. It doesn't work, but that gives us usb_modeswitch and pppd to play with.
Install busybox if you don't have it already. Your device should be rooted.
I disabled modem's cdrom mode so that i wouldn't have to modeswitch it with PPP Widget every time (did it from linux)
http://ma.juii.net/blog/disable-usb-mode-switching
Tweak and install pppd/chat scripts for your provider:
/sdcard/pppwidget/ppp/free-chat
Chat script to initiate connection. Change AT commands and dial number (*99#) if yours differ.
Code:
ABORT BUSY
ABORT 'NO CARRIER'
ABORT 'NO ANSWER'
ABORT DELAYED
REPORT CONNECT
TIMEOUT 2
"" AT
OK-AT-OK AT&FE0V1X1&D2&C1S0=0
OK-AT-OK AT
OK-AT-OK ATS0=0
OK-AT-OK AT
OK-AT-OK AT&FE0V1X1&D2&C1S0=0
OK-AT-OK AT
OK ATDT*99#
TIMEOUT 30
CONNECT ''
SAY '\rReport from chat:\r'
/sdcard/pppwidget/ppp/peers/free
pppd config file
Code:
#/etc/ppp/peers/free
# Usage: root>pppd call free
ttyUSB0
3600000
crtscts
connect '/data/data/de.draisberghof.pppwidget/app_bin/chat -v -f /sdcard/pppwidget/ppp/free-chat'
noauth
defaultroute
usehostname
user fooooooo
noipdefault
usepeerdns
idle 0
/sdcard/3gmodem/connect
script to start connection
Code:
#!/system/bin/sh
pppd call free
# use own DNS (OpenDNS)
ndc resolver setifdns ppp0 208.67.222.222 208.67.222.220
ndc resolver setdefaultif ppp0
To connect, open a terminal and type:
Code:
$ su
# cd /sdcard/3gmodem
# ./connect
Now you're connected. browser should work now.
Connection is there but android doesn't know about it, so apps like play store which check connectivity will think you're offline. Install Fake Wifi Connection to deal with those.
Done !

how to get chat script for other modem

Hello, Can I use your chat script with Huawei E3531, and replace only the AT commands?
Do I need busybox?
I have no knowledge of commands, just very basic commands on android terminal.
I am having a really hard time to connect to internet, mainly because Broadcom BCM43142 wifi is not compatible with android 9.0-r2, and older versions.
Thank you

[GUIDE] Run a socks proxy on android using stunnel. (Tethering, VPN, you name it.)

For this guide, we'll be using stunnel 5.41 built for android
Manual steps (Overview):
1. Download and extract stunnel.
2. Copy the stunnel binary to a location that allows setting the +x flag. (/data/local/tmp/, /su/ etc...)
3. Chmod stunnel to be executable.
4. Create your config file.
5. Optional, run a stunnel instance at home, and tunnel into home.
6. Create your psk.
7. Run Stunnel
8. Optional: Forward ADB ports
1.
Download the stunnel 5.41 from here: ftp://ftp.stunnel.org/stunnel/archive/5.x/stunnel-5.41-android.zip
Extract the zip file, and in a single folder you will find the stunnel binary.
2.
We will assume you don't have root, so for this guide I will have you place stunnel in /data/local/tmp/ but feel free to replace that with locations in /su/bin/ or /system/bin/ to suit your fancy.
Code:
adb push stunnel /data/local/tmp/
3.
Set permissions:
Code:
adb shell chmod 755 /data/local/tmp/stunnel
4.
For this setup, we will be using PSK security. This is not the best security method, but since it will only be running on your phone it should be fine.
The config file we will be creating is this:
Code:
[socks server]
protocol = socks
accept = :::20102
PSKsecrets = psk.txt
[socks client]
client = yes
accept = :::4040
connect = localhost:20102
PSKsecrets = psk.txt
We'll put this in /data/local/tmp/conf. To create this file we will run:
Code:
adb shell "echo '[socks server]\nprotocol = socks\naccept = :::20102\nPSKsecrets = psk.txt\n\n[socks client]\nclient = yes\naccept = :::4080\nconnect = localhost:20102\nPSKsecrets = psk.txt' > /data/local/tmp/conf"
5.
Notice that there is a section for both a client and server. you can take the server portion, and move it to another computer.
If you do this, your client config file will look something like:
Code:
[socks client]
client = yes
accept = :::4040
connect = your.servername.here:20102
PSKsecrets = psk.txt
You can read more about doing this here: https://www.stunnel.org/socksvpn.html
replace "your.servername.here" with the IP or hostname of your home computer, vps, or wherever stunnel will run.
6.
You will need to create a username and password to secure your socks tunnel. In this example I will be using a username of "secret" and a password of "codes are the best thing ever". Note: your password must be more than 32 characters long. We'll create this file as psk.txt (you may have noticed this earlier in the config.) It must be formatted as: "usernameassword"
The file should look something like:
Code:
secret:codes are the best thing ever
So, let's go ahead and create the file:
Code:
adb shell "echo 'secret:codes are the best thing ever' > /data/local/tmp/psk.txt"
This file should be on both the server and the client. (The default in this guide is to have both the server and client running on your phone.)
7.
Now, with all files in place, you can start stunnel by running:
Code:
adb shell "cd /data/local/tmp ; ./stunnel conf"
This will now run in the background waiting for connections.
You can now configure android applications to use this connection as a socks proxy on localhost:4080, but that is not terribly useful unless you have a server somewhere else running the socks server portion.
8.
You can forward ports to a computer via adb:
Code:
adb forward tcp:4080 tcp:4080
Now, this is where it gets more useful. You can configure your computer to use your phone as a socks proxy simply by configuring the proxy settings on your favorite browser, application or whatever you like to use: localhost:4080
Handy one-liners.
Run the following to download stunnel to your phone, create a config file, dump a default PSK in place, and forward port 4080 to your local machine for tethering joy!
Code:
adb shell "if [ ! -f /data/local/tmp/stunnel ]; then curl 'http://cheatersedge.org/android/stunnel' > /data/local/tmp/stunnel ; chmod 755 /data/local/tmp/stunnel ; fi ; echo '[socks server]\nprotocol = socks\naccept = :::20102\nPSKsecrets = psk.txt\n\n[socks client]\nclient = yes\naccept = :::4080\nconnect = localhost:20102\nPSKsecrets = psk.txt' > /data/local/tmp/conf ; echo 'secret:codes are the best thing ever' > /data/local/tmp/psk.txt ; cd /data/local/tmp ; ./stunnel conf" && adb forward tcp:4080 tcp:4080
Stop stunnel from running on your phone:
Code:
adb shell "kill -9 `ps -A | grep stunnel | sed 's/[a-zA-Z ]* \([0-9]*\) .*$/\1/'`"

Stunnel on Android 7.x not working?
Hello,
I have trouble with stunnel on Android 7.x..
I'm trying to connect to OpenVPN server through SSL tunneling with stunnel.
On phone I'm using stunnel installed in Termux and OpenVPN. Everything is correctly configured, Im using the same config on other devices in same network and it works perfectly.
I tried it with different devices with Android 7.x and it is not working at all
Immediately after succesful connection I am receiving:
Code:
TLS fd: Software caused connection abort (103)
TLS socket closed (SSL_read)
And it is still reconnecting again and again with the same error.
I also tried it with stunnel downloaded directly from stunnel.org site..
Anyone with new Android who have working stunnel? Where can be the problem?
Example stunnel.log is in attachment.
Thank you very much

Would that work with the no-root firewall NetGuard that supports only chaining via SOCKS5?