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I have looked on the boards for how to make a su password, and I think I saw it once, but I can't find it again, can someone point me to a link or post how to set the password please. I'd like to be protected for obvious reasons.
Are you concerned about a malicious user getting a hold of your G1, invoking su and causing damage? Or are you concerned about malicious programs using su to cause damage programmatically?
For the latter, all you need to do is install JF's v1.3+ Android and you're protected via Koush's su setup. It simply redirects all su invocations to the Superuser app where you can whitelist an app. For the former, I guess you'd have to rely on the KeyGuard. Maybe some future version of Superuser will include its own KeyGuard for blocking out malicious user access.
Edit: original forum posting about Superuser. Info there might be obsolete. Latest versions of Superuser comes bundled in JF builds.
jashsu said:
Are you concerned about a malicious user getting a hold of your G1, invoking su and causing damage? Or are you concerned about malicious programs using su to cause damage programmatically?
For the latter, all you need to do is install JF's v1.3+ Android and you're protected via Koush's su setup. It simply redirects all su invocations to the Superuser app where you can whitelist an app. For the former, I guess you'd have to rely on the KeyGuard. Maybe some future version of Superuser will include its own KeyGuard for blocking out malicious user access.
Edit: original forum posting about Superuser. Info there might be obsolete. Latest versions of Superuser comes bundled in JF builds.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm going to eventually add a configuration option to make Superuser password based. I'm pretty busy though, so I was hoping someone else could do it.
Hi,
please add an option to superuser app to use /etc/passwd or /etc/shadow if present. Currently I'm trying to improve the linux compatibility on my HTC dream 1.5 using busybox. I've already pushed upstream a patch to make it easier to use adduser and addgroup on android. Now i have a password protected su on the terminal but i need to intercept somehow su requests that are not on a tty
( if (!isatty() ) to fire up a yes/no dialog or password request dialog. The problem is that my C skills are good but my Java is unexistent.
I'll post more of my work as soon as I reach a minimum of stability, including:
1) a wrapper for vold to perform os setup tasks on boot
2) a patch to vold to allow working swap on file on the sdcard
3) android tailored busybox config, passwd, shadow, group, gshadow and
fstab.
PREFACE & CRY FOR HELP:
I’m pretty sure this guide works. This is how I got permaroot and write access to my DHD system files and directories. But I might have made mistakes. I hope some experienced people will read this guide and point them out. I hope newbs will wait for a few people to say if this guide is correct or not before trying this.
I mainly used Evostance's guide. Thank you Evostance (and all the others whose work I've ripped off here!) and I hope you understand me for posting this rather longer, newbified guide;
The guide:
This is a guide to rooting and gaining write permission to your Desire HD, written for the Android newb.
You ain’t dumb, you just don’t know Android. Even though I’m learning to program for this OS, I don’t know Android either. Not enough to root and gain write without the help of expert reverse engineers and other guide writers who have much more experience than I do with this OS.
However, all the knowledge is very fragmented right now, due to everyone being VERY EXCITED about root now being available on a NAND locked DHD. The info is there, but it takes some looking around, some warnings, some things I didn’t find in one place, but scattered through many posts on many threads.
That’s why I wrote this: for the Android newb who wants a rooted phone and doesn’t have the time to spend hours tracking down the information and all the caveats.
WARNING: THIS IS DANGEROUS AND CAN BRICK YOUR PHONE. IF YOU TRY THIS, IT IS YOUR OWN RESPONSIBILITY, NOT THE APP WRITTERS, NOT THE GUIDE WRITERS, JUST YOURSELF.
1.
First things first: you might have a lot of programs running which use temproot.
Remove them. ALL.
Check SuperUser which apps have been granted root, and uninstall them, removing all data. For previous (temproot only) versions of Visionary, it might be safer to stop it temprooting at startup, and restart your phone (longpress power, select restart or power off), then remove visionary, just in case.
Finally, remove SuperUser itself.
All the above might not be necessary, but there have been reports of trouble from having these programs running whilst trying to achieve permroot. So be safer rather than sorrier.
2.
Now your phone is essentially running a stock version; no programs running root are active, no surprises at startup. Titanium Backup etc etc are not going to interfere.
Get the following files and programs:
From the Marketplace:
-Gscript (Lite is fine)
-Terminal Emulator
-a root file explorer. The only program I’ve found which does what I need is Root Eplorer. It will cost you money, but Android Mate or Astro haven’t been able to do the job for me.
(DO NOT INSTALL YET -SuperUser; we’ll get this later on; if you install it now you might run into trouble whilst trying to get root, as it might interfere with certain program’s checks to see if you have root already. I mention this program here so you know you’ll need it later, so either have access to the Marketplace or have the .apk ready to install later on.)
Install these on your ‘clean’ phone.
From the internet:
-the files listed in the first post of :
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=805327 (adwinp’s guide)
or
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=834427 (Evostance’s guide)
I used the second link (and the guide Evostance wrote which is included). Use this time to read through what Adwinp and Evostance say. Follow the link to their threads and understand what you’re doing.
-get Visionary+ from the awesome Paul O’Brian.
DO NOT INSTALL THIS YET!
http://android.modaco.com/content/t...350/10-nov-r12-test-visionary-one-click-root/
Use a version higher than v11 (v12, v 13, v14 … I don’t know what version he’s on; you might have to look for v13 in that thread, page 6, 7 or 8, if he hasn’t released a newer version).
3.
Now, get all these files and apk’s on your phone. Sync ‘em, download them direct, use wifi, whatever. Just don’t install them (yet). You want the raw files.
Specifically:
-the visionary apk
And from any of those packages you downloaded from the guides listed above:
-the wpx.sh and hboot.sh files (found in the gscript folder of Evostance’s guide’s package): these should be put on your SDCARD, in a directory named gscript (you might be able to put them anywhere, I put them here and the process worked for me).
-the correct wpx.ko and hboot-XXXXXX.nbo files. The XXXXXX refers to a specific hboot file, corresponding to if you updated your phone over the air with the HTC fixes or not. These files are found in rar/zip packages found in the previous mentioned guides (and probably many other mirrors). Pick the files which are located in the folder whose name corresponds to your kernel version (found on your phone using menu -> settings -> About phone -> Software Information -> kernel version).
These .ko files should be put in your SDCARD’s root directory
4. RECAP:
Now you should have
-Gscript and Terminal Emulator installed
-the Visionary .apk on your sd card somewhere
-wpx.sh and hboot.sh in the SDCARD\gscript directory
-wpx.ko and hboot-XXXXXX.nbo on your SDCARD’s root.
5.
Now we’re almost at the point of no return.
Run Gscript.
Hit the menu, “add script” and hit “load from file”. Select the wxp.sh file. Have “run as superuser” selected.
Do the same for hboot.sh.
Exit gscript.
6.
Install Visionary.
Don’t do anything except get temproot. ONLY hit the temproot button; don’t change anything else.
Wait.
You should have temproot now. To be sure, go and select ‘run at boot’ (the ‘re-get temproot’ checkbox) in Visionary and reboot your phone (long powerkey press, restart or shutdown, then restart your phone).
You should have temproot again. You can check this after the next step:
7.
Install SuperUser (preffereably from the Market, so you have the latest version).
If you start the Terminal Emulator, you should now be able to type
su
and hit enter, and the prompt will change from a $ to a #. If so, you have root. You might have to allow SuperUser access to the Terminal Emulator. Do so.
7.
After you have temproot, you should now start Gscript. In the next bits, you might get “Gscript is trying to use SuperUser status” (or somesuch) popup message. Allow this.
Run the wxp script. It should report an error. This is OK.
Run the hboot script. If all is well, you should get a three (actually four) line report saying that something worked.
If you get a message saying that this operation couldn’t run, you’ve done something wrong, somewhere. I can’t help you: try from the beginning or something. Sorry I can’t be more helpful than that.
8.
Point of no-return:
You have temproot, you have installed SuperUser and you have run the two Gscript commands.
In this next bit, SuperUser might prompt that Visionary is seeking root permission. DENY THIS. It’s my belief that Visionary expects NOT to get that permission and only then runs. Giving permission leads to not much happening after you press the root button. I suspect a few problems happen due to this. Anyway:
Startup Visionary again. (maybe select ‘mount system as r/w’ … for me it didn’t, which is part of why I’m writing this guide).
Now, in Visionary, hit the ‘get permroot’ button. This process might take a while. If it’s working, the menu you pushed the button on should whisk away to the side: that way, you know Visionary is getting you permroot. Your phone should reset and you should have permroot.
8.
Making it stick.
Use Root Explorer for this next part. I tried using other programs, but they wouldn’t work. Mainly because granting write access hadn’t worked properly.
Now copy
su to /system/bin/
and
Superuser.apk to /system/app/
You can find su in system/xbin/ and SuperUser.apk in /data/app/. You might have to mount the system directories as r/w (from r/o) using Root Explorer. I had to do this, as I didn’t have write access to system files, even though I asked Visionary to do this. No biggy, but it did mean I had to buy Root Explorer. Not a bad price to pay for permroot, write access and a pretty good file explorer
Now, finally, open Terminal Emulator and type:
su <enter>
chmod 4755 /system/bin/su <enter>
After typing ‘su’, the prompt should change. If it doesn’t, as mentioned before, you don’t have any kind of root (or Term.Emu doesn’t have it, maybe resetting SuperUser’s settings will help) and I can’t help you.
Now you should have total control over your system files. You now finally own your phone.
9.
Thanks to everyone involved, from the hackers to the helpers to the guide writers to those who just chimed in. I didn’t do anything except steal all this info from them, use their files and programs and write this down.
Thank you; we NAND locked phone users are in your debt.
Hi MacDegger,
Good effort, a couple of things that when reading appear a little off, unnecessary or confusing
"You should have temproot now. To be sure, go and select ‘run at boot’ (the ‘re-get temproot’ checkbox) in Visionary and reboot your phone (long powerkey press, restart or shutdown, then restart your phone).
You should have temproot again. You can check this after the next step:
7.
Install SuperUser (preffereably from the Market, so you have the latest version).
If you start the Terminal Emulator, you should now be able to type"
- There is no need to reboot. Also, checking "run on bootup" is something I would refrain from. Simply temp-root is enough
- Why "install superuser" from market?! temprooting via visionary (r12 is what I used) already pushes Superuser.apk to /data/app, so there is no need to re-install from market
- So instead, I would simply temp root with visionary. No reboot, not market download
In this next bit, SuperUser might prompt that Visionary is seeking root permission. DENY THIS. It’s my belief that Visionary expects NOT to get that permission and only then runs. Giving permission leads to not much happening after you press the root button. I suspect a few problems happen due to this. Anyway:
Startup Visionary again. (maybe select ‘mount system as r/w’ … for me it didn’t, which is part of why I’m writing this guide).
Now, in Visionary, hit the ‘get permroot’ button. This process might take a while. If it’s working, the menu you pushed the button on should whisk away to the side: that way, you know Visionary is getting you permroot. Your phone should reset and you should have permroot.
Also not necessary. Visionary R12+ (actually use the R13 version as this one skips the "root already installed routine" some people have issues with) will permroot your device straight after temprooting it just fine. It will open the wpx.ko, will write busybox and su to system/xbin, will repush superuser.apk to /data, will then copy wpthis-lovinglymadebymodaco.ko to /data/local and then reboot.
After this reboot, you are already perm rooted. uninstall visionary, and reboot to test it.
Run the wxp script. It should report an error. This is OK.
NOTE: running visionarx to PERMROOT will copy the required wpthis.ko file (with the right kernel version to /data/local), and will call it "wpthis-lovinglymadeforyoubymodaco.ko."
So as a matter of fact you now have 2 (two) modules in /data/local, the wpx.ko and modaco (pauls) version of it. Whilst no biggy, I would simply adapt the wpx script to insmod pauls version, not wpx anymore. Just to be safe the right kernel is used when execuing and opening the exploit to remove the RW protection to /system, and I believe visionary+ actually checks the kernel and then pushed the correct wpthis*.ko to /data/local.
The next steps,
8.
Making it stick.
Use Root Explorer for this next part. I tried using other programs, but they wouldn’t work. Mainly because granting write access hadn’t worked properly.
Now copy
su to /system/bin/
and
Superuser.apk to /system/app/
You can find su in system/xbin/ and SuperUser.apk in /data/app/. You might have to mount the system directories as r/w (from r/o) using Root Explorer. I had to do this, as I didn’t have write access to system files, even though I asked Visionary to do this. No biggy, but it did mean I had to buy Root Explorer. Not a bad price to pay for permroot, write access and a pretty good file explorer
Couple of things - visionary will only mount to /RW when flagged and executing TEMPROOT. SO by default, upon reboot the system is always in R/O mode, not R/W mode, whether you use visionary or install root manually. Thats fine and as you said, you can remout RW with RootExplore or via ADB.
Pushing SU and superuser.apk from /data/app and /system/xbin to /system/app and /system/bin is, whilst "safe" not really required. Superuser.apk is quite happy being on /data/app, and IF you must move it to /system/app, you should do a couple of things.
a) MOVE it, not copy it. This way, the user data (which permissions are allowing access to root) will not uninstall, and the permissions will also be set correctly (664 permissions for apps, or RWRWR). Copying it is not ideal, as it could simply kill/forget or cause other issues to it when you do it wrong. And if the permissions are missing as you didn't copy right, you basically blocked yourself our of your root-method permanently.
b) Copying su to system/bin is nice, but again, I would rather create a symlink to is in system/bin to execute/link to system/xbin. Again permissions are necessary and vital
They work just fine in /data/app and system/xbin. THe only reason to move su to system/bin is that some apps simply look for SU in /system/bin, and not in system/xbin. Most well programmed apps that require root will find it anyway, regardless of whether su is in /system/bin or system/xbin.
SO, I would, if I had to advice "noobs", simply leave them where they are. I would temproot, permroot and then install the s-off recovery. Nothing more after step 7.
PS the point of no return, the really dangerous bit, is actually THIS
Run the hboot script. If all is well, you should get a three (actually four) line report saying that something worked.
Thats where your system is flashing the bootloader, this is the risky part, where things can go terribly wrong. So "something worked" is maybe not very noob-friendly SO when writing for newbies, make sure they understand ONE thing.
ALL they do in your guide is reversible with flashing the RUU again if something got messed up.
But this
"Run the hboot script. If all is well, you should get a three (actually four) line report saying that something worked. "
This is where you CAN turn your device into a 600 USD paperweight!
I think this guide has too much info for the average user to understand.
It's better for the average user to just permroot only and leave hboot alone until they know what can go wrong.
My guide takes alot less steps to achieve S-OFF, because I use the kernel module Visionairy+ leaves behind after permrooting. In other words if you fail to permroot, you won't be able flash HBOOT until you read the other topics on how to modify the module. Which leaves the average Jo far away from a possible brick without some knowhow.
Just my two cents.
Thanks for your awesome comment, Thyrus! I think that an android newb (like me ) now has enough information, after reading this with your post, to do this safely.
I'm going to incorporate your comments into the post, but there's one thing I'm hazy on. Thing is, what I described above was the exact sequence I used to get root and write. You seem to suggest that the whole gscript thing is unnecessary and visionary13+ permroot does all of that anyway, except for flashing the hboot?
So basically I flashed my hboot twice, and because I ran the two gscript scripts, I basically rooted my phone twice?
Just to be sure, you suggest getting rid of the whole gscript section and replacing it with "run visionary permroot now, and if you really want to (and at your own risk) flash the hboot using the gscript hboot.sh"?
I'll wait for your response before changing, just to be sure. Anyway, thanks for your great post!
I am trying to root a motorola i886. Its a really wierd nextel iDEN PTT phone that is running (i believe) android 2.0 or 2.1 but has no touchscreen...
Basically I have been able to get a root shell (#) from 'adb shell' by pushing some program called psneuter to the phone and running it. Once I had this I could install apps via adb ok, but it seems like whenever I try to run any apps that require root they error saying they do not have root access.
As far as I can tell pretty much every rooting guide for every other phone has you putting 'su' and sometimes 'busybox' into /system/bin and 'Superuser.apk' into /system/app. I did both of these but still got the same errors about apps not having root. I tried a few different versions of these files I found from different sites to no avail. Running su on a terminal emulator on the phone itself would get the error "operation not allowed" or something like that. Then I found some other guide where you just copy 'sh' to 'su' and chmod su to 4755. When I did that I could get to a # prompt on the phone's terminal emulator app by typing 'su' but still got root errors for apps that need root.
I though maybe someone here would know something that I missed. As far as I can tell, I have applied the correct permissions to all these files or have at least tried every combination I can think of to no avail (shouldn't chmod 777 just make everything work?)
Also, does the phone usually come with a stock version of busybox on it? Do you need a specific version of these files for your device or version of android?
When an app on the phone tries to get root access is it just basically trying to run 'su' internally or something like that?
Also forgot to mention I have tried all the one-click-root apps and they do not work for this stupid phone. (well the super one click one was how I figured out how to get the adb shell root but the regular root button doesn't work...)
I can't help with your specific questions, but there is some info about rooting the i1, another iDEN with Android. Although it looks like the i1 is actually Android, and not the Motorola-altered, not-really-Android, proprietary software that the i886 has.
http://www.howardforums.com/showthread.php/1662431-Motorola-i1-Rooted
http://forum.cyanogenmod.com/topic/5520-ive-rooted-my-i1/
garbb said:
I am trying to root a motorola i886. Its a really wierd nextel iDEN PTT phone that is running (i believe) android 2.0 or 2.1 but has no touchscreen...
Basically I have been able to get a root shell (#) from 'adb shell' by pushing some program called psneuter to the phone and running it. Once I had this I could install apps via adb ok, but it seems like whenever I try to run any apps that require root they error saying they do not have root access.
As far as I can tell pretty much every rooting guide for every other phone has you putting 'su' and sometimes 'busybox' into /system/bin and 'Superuser.apk' into /system/app. I did both of these but still got the same errors about apps not having root. I tried a few different versions of these files I found from different sites to no avail. Running su on a terminal emulator on the phone itself would get the error "operation not allowed" or something like that. Then I found some other guide where you just copy 'sh' to 'su' and chmod su to 4755. When I did that I could get to a # prompt on the phone's terminal emulator app by typing 'su' but still got root errors for apps that need root.
I though maybe someone here would know something that I missed. As far as I can tell, I have applied the correct permissions to all these files or have at least tried every combination I can think of to no avail (shouldn't chmod 777 just make everything work?)
Also, does the phone usually come with a stock version of busybox on it? Do you need a specific version of these files for your device or version of android?
When an app on the phone tries to get root access is it just basically trying to run 'su' internally or something like that?
Also forgot to mention I have tried all the one-click-root apps and they do not work for this stupid phone. (well the super one click one was how I figured out how to get the adb shell root but the regular root button doesn't work...)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
PM to me,i rooted sucefully, and install many applications with android SDK suite.
Regards.
geminis said:
PM to me,i rooted sucefully, and install many applications with android SDK suite.
Regards.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wow, I can't believe someone found this thread and replied after so long. Thanks, but in the meantime I actually figured out how to root it fully and get root apps to work. I think i just tried different su's and superuser.apk's that I found on the internet until one worked...
Now, if you have figured out how to change the nextel push-to-talk chirp/beep sounds then let me know how you did that. I actually found the .wav files for the PTT sounds in some .apk in /system (phone.apk I think?) but for some reason changing them had no effect on the sound the phone makes when using the push-to-talk feature...
Its been 10 years but do you still have the firmware for this device? I need to flash it, it doesnt finish booting up
I don't have a full ROM .zip file for this phone, only some update .zips. But the first link result for a google search for "motorola admiral stock rom" worked for me for downloading a file.
Wrong phone, sorry.
Sorry but i don't understand. Isn't the Motorola admiral a different device? Does that zip work for the i886? If so, how do I flash it, because the i886 doenst have a recovery mode.
Oh, oops sorry, I was confusing this phone with another one. I looked and I don't have and firmware files for this, sorry.
OK, thanks for replying
Hello xda, I have a bit of a problem:
I have a Samsung Exhibit which I rooted using the zergRush method found here on the forums. At first everything worked fine. But recently I was trying to push a modified system app to my phone using adb and it told me the action wasn't permitted. Checking the shell, and terminal emulator on my phone to see if I had superuser permissions failed. So I went about trying to root my phone again, which according to the zergRush script said was successfull, but checking the shell once again showed that I still did not have superuser permissions. I did a factory wipe of my phone in hopes of trying to get it to root again with no success. But here's the weird part, although it doesn't appear I have root access all my apps that require root access (titanium backup, my screenshot app, and some of widgetlocker's features) still fully function.....
Does anyone have any idea what's going on here? I would love my system folder access back
Thanks in advance.
Dumb question, but your H-Boot shows S-Off? Just covering the bases... Also, do you have Super User installed and functional?
To be honest... I don't know what H-Boot or S-Off means. Pretty new to all of this. Mind giving me a walkthrough? I have superuser installed yes. It's granting programs superuser permissions. But I can't access su in terminal emulator or in the shell.
Well, I'm not the top tier technical person here, so I'm not exactly sure on how to get your problem resumed, since I've not heard of that. On the other hand, there might be a different way to accomplish what you are trying to do.
What are you trying to achieve, pushing a modified system app to do what and where? My suggestion, might be to just put it on your phone through USB to the root folder and then move it in ES File manager, or w/e you use. If all you are doing is pushing.
Obviously ADB shell detects your device, but I'm not sure why it is saying it doesn't have SU access. My other suggestion is to redo the ADB/Android SDK installs. I had a problem where I installed them wrong, by installing too much and ADB did not work properly. So, there might be a chance your phone is fine, but the ADB/SDK are not proper, somehow.
Let me know.
If that were the case, and my phone was fine, wouldn't I be able to access super user through terminal emulator on my phone? Right now when typing su in terminal emulator, the pop up to grant superuser permissions appears but when you allow it to have su permission the # doesn't turn to a $ like it should. The more I think about it the more I think it's a problem with superuser. I've seen people talking about an update to superuser that can break your root? Mehhhh.
Seems like other have had this problem too... Not sure if a nandroid recovery will fix this, otherwise you might have to try to unroot, and then reroot.
Sorry, just might have to do a little more digging than I was able to. Good luck
Currently running a OnePlus 8T + 5G with unlocked/TWRP bootloader which is not rooted, since neither of the two methods want to work on my specific version (KB2007; unlocked former T-Mobile).
Anyway, I'm trying to switch to another ROM but I'm wondering how best to backup/restore all of my apps. Loved using Titanium Backup way back in the day, but am I still correct in assuming that it doesn't work correctly without root access? If so, are there any non-root methods of backing up all or most of my apps along with their current configurations/etc to restore into the new ROM once it's installed? Obviously, most ROMs will support doing it through Google Play, but then it takes forever to log back in to each app, set it all back up, etc. If I've been missing some basic way of restoring all the apps with their configurations intact, please feel free to smack me upside the head with the answer =)
And my apologies in advance if I'm misusing any of the terminology. Before this phone, it has been at least five years since I even tried rooting/unlocking/etc, so I'm a bit rusty.
In the world of computers an app belongs to person who installed it, app's data are owned by the app itself.
Hence it should be obvious that only an user with elevated rights ( AKA Superuser or Root ) can perform a backup and/or restore.
Take note that a temporary root is enough to do the jobs.
Got it. So, in other words, figure out how to root the phone despite the troubles I've been having trying to do so. Unless there's some sort of temporary root privs available that I've never heard of?
To get a temporary root all you have to do is to add to Android OS the binary called SU
Example
Code:
adb push <LOCATION-OF-SU-BINARY-ON-COMPUTER> /data/local/tmp/
adb shell "chmod +x /data/local/tmp/su"
what then allows you to run Android shell commands when elevated rights are needed
Example
Code:
adb devices
adb shell "/data/local/tmp/su -c '<SHELL-COMMAND-HERE>'"
Am I correct in assuming that SU is the same as "switch/substitute user" in *nix? Does that mean I can run TB from the ADB shell, assuming I include the correct command line arguments? Something along the lines of doing a SUDO in *nix before running something that requires admin access or whatever.
I know this might be quite different from what you're looking for maybe?
In the future if you get a rooted rom, I use something called Migrate from the play store, it requires root and just copies all your data into a bunch of twrp flashable zip files.
Play Store
silentrawr said:
Am I correct in assuming that SU is the same as "switch/substitute user" in *nix? Does that mean I can run TB from the ADB shell, assuming I include the correct command line arguments? Something along the lines of doing a SUDO in *nix before running something that requires admin access or whatever.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
SU in root context usually means super user, as a user with all privileges, but it's the same thing as super user, so yes.
Hello Everyone,
I too am interested in a backup solution for my Android smartphone.
I would happily root or temporarily root, but despite having a computer background that dates back to Unix, I am an Android novice and do not know how to perform these operations which to most people here seem elementary.
Could someone please point me to an easy to understand primer on either temporary root or permanent root.
I would be very appreciative and I am sure that there are other readers of this post who would benefit as well.
Thank you.
AndroidNewbie9000 said:
Could someone please point me to an easy to understand primer on either temporary root or permanent root.
I would be very appreciative and I am sure that there are other readers of this post who would benefit as well.
Thank you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The thing is, that the "official" way to root a device nowadays usually includes a wipe of all user data. You basically have to decide that you want to do full backups before you use an app. This is a security measure so that an attacker cannot use the official way to e.g. access app-internal data on a stolen phone, like secret tokens of 2FA-apps. In order to backup existing app-internal data you either need to use the per-app-backup that the creators of that app did hopefully include or hope that the allowed to do adb backup. That can be used without root, but depending on your Android, apps either need to allow this explicitly or at least not explicitly disallow that in their manifest file.
In principle you can use exploits for non-official rooting to backup existing data that is blocked from adb backup - but this is only an option if you do not have the latest security updates in place and an exploit is publicly available.