Related
When I first attempted to install the SDK, I found tutorials that only had bits and pieces about the whole procedure. A lot of Google searches and hours of eye strain. I wanted to write a solid tutorial, but instead of publishing it in a personal blog, I chose to publish it here on xda-developers. This is the definite forum to come to if you are interested in Android/G1/HTC Dream development or costumization. I wrote this to make the enlarge the knowledge of this community.
!! THIS TUTORIAL IS FOR THE LATEST UBUNTU RELEASE: JAUNTY JACKALOPE 9.04 !!
!!START -------------------------------------- Optional Preparation --------------------------------------
This applies if you -
Are interested in installing Ubuntu for the first time.
Are/will be reinstalling Ubuntu from scratch.
Want to keep your SDK installation easy to reach.
Want to keep things nice and clean.
And your machine -
Has a second hard drive.
Has free space for another small partition.
This procedure will make things easier during installation of the SDK and in the long run. Hopefully you've read about partitions. If you are dualbooting, please read this first to get an idea of what you're doing.
While installing Ubuntu and on the Prepare Disk Space screen (partition editor), select "Specify partitions manually (Advanced)"
On the Create Partition dialog, select the following options:
Type for the new partition: Primaryor Logical if you're dualbooting and know what you are doing.
New partition size in megabytes: 5120MB (5GB) might work. BUT:
ccyrowski said:
It should be noted that if you ever plan on compiling kernels and/or cupcake ROM's you will NEED ubuntu8.04. You'll also need at least 10GB.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Location for the new partition: Beginning
Use as: Ext4 or Ext3Filesystem doesn't matter. (?)
Mount point: /AndroidSDKEnter this manually
Complete Ubuntu installation as usual.
-------------------------------------- Optional Preparation -------------------------------------- END!!
You will now install the SDK.
!!START -------------------------------------- Installing Android SDK --------------------------------------
Installing the SDK is the easiest of all.
Download the SDK.169.9 MB [http://developer.android.com/sdk/download.html?v=android-sdk-linux_x86-1.5_r3.zip]
Right-click and select Extract Here.
Move the contents of the android-sdk-linux_x86-1.5_r3 directory to your desired location.If you followed Optional Installation, move the contents to your /AndroidSDK directory in the root of your filesystem.
Close directory window.
-------------------------------------- Installing Android SDK -------------------------------------- END!!
You will now set up your bashrc file and UDEV to recognize your HTC Device.
!!START -------------------------------------- ADB + FASTBOOT --------------------------------------
The Android Debug Bridge (adb) is one of the tools that will help you the most when you run into flashing problems or running shell commands directly from your machine. UDEV will not recognize your G1 out of the box, but we will configure it with some rules so it can connect.
We will work with /AndroidSDK as the location of your sdk. If this is not your setup, I think you're smart enough to figure it out.
Editing .bashrc file to use tools from /AndroidSDK/tools/ directory -
Go to your home folder.Example: /home/wddglr/
Press Control + H to view hidden files.
Look for your .bashrc file and double click to open it with gedit.
Add the following lines to the top of the file:
Code:
#AndroidDev PATH
export PATH=${PATH}:/AndroidSDK/tools
IMPORTANT NOTE
savethechicken said:
This is the way that I have my .bashrc file setup. For those having problems with it not recognizing the adb as a command try this...
Code:
export PATH=$PATH:/AndroidSDK/tools
I removed the {} around ${PATH} and it is working if I had them on it would say that it didn't recognize the command. Removed them and all works well.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Setting up UDEV to recognize HTC Device -
Type the following into a terminal (Applications > Accessories > Terminal):
Code:
gksudo gedit /etc/udev/rules.d/51-android.rules
Now add the following line to the blank file:
Code:
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", SYSFS{idVendor}=="0bb4", MODE="0666"
Click save and close.
To restart udev, open up a terminal and enter:
Code:
sudo /etc/init.d/udev restart
Setting up fastboot -
Download this fastboot binary from http://android-dls.com.130.4 KB [http://android-dls.com/files/linux/fastboot]
Once downloaded to your desktop, right click and select Properties.
Navigate to the Permissions tab and configure the following option:Execute: [√] Allow executing file as program
Click Close.
Move the fastboot bianary to your /AndroidSDK/tools/ directory.
Reboot.
-------------------------------------- ADB + FASTBOOT -------------------------------------- END!!Now you can use adb and fastboot directly from any terminal. If you chose to do the Optional Preparation, you can now save your Eclipse Workspace and your downloaded/custom ROMs/Themes in this new /AndroidSDK directory keeping things easier to reach and safe from evil disk errors or other mishaps!!! :OIf you are having problems, send me a PM. I will be happy to help.
*applaudes* awesome. Should be added to helpful threads.
very nice! perhaps add a "(How-To)" prefix to thread??
Everything was going great in setting this up until I got to this part "gedit /etc/udev/rules.d/51-android.rules"
I cannot find "51-android.rules" inside of "rules.d"
Any thoughts>?
nicholasbithell said:
Everything was going great in setting this up until I got to this part "gedit /etc/udev/rules.d/51-android.rules"
I cannot find "51-android.rules" inside of "rules.d"
Any thoughts>?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
it does not exist, you will make it.
do the command as stated above.
Code:
gksu gedit /etc/udev/rules.d/51-android.rules
Damn you beat me to it!
I was just thinking earlier about doing this same "How-To" guide, I was surprise to see it posted just now.
Anyways, great job!
Can someone sticky this thread. Now I have ADB & fastboot on my Win7, Ubuntu, and OS X Partition. Thank you wddglr.
bravo...linux rocks even better now!...
Awesome tutorial for setting this up. Have been using adb/sdk on ubuntu since oct. but this would have saved me some headaches back in the first couple of weeks.
The onlything that is not clear and/or confuses me is
Setting up the udev to recognize the device.
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", SYSFS{idVendor}=="0bb4", MODE="0666"
Have never used this (will now to see if it will do anything) and the only problem i have is that sometimes i have to kill-server to get it to connect correctly but i have seen this happen to almost everyone on many forums since the 9.04 came out. And even after putting this file on the computer i have had the problem.
savethechicken said:
Awesome tutorial for setting this up. Have been using adb/sdk on ubuntu since oct. but this would have saved me some headaches back in the first couple of weeks.
The onlything that is not clear and/or confuses me is
Setting up the udev to recognize the device.
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", SYSFS{idVendor}=="0bb4", MODE="0666"
Have never used this (will now to see if it will do anything) and the only problem i have is that sometimes i have to kill-server to get it to connect correctly but i have seen this happen to almost everyone on many forums since the 9.04 came out. And even after putting this file on the computer i have had the problem.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It happens to me also from time to time. especially when i reboot and want to go into adb while the device is rebooting. although that file, 51-adndroid.rules, is what helped me get adb to recognize the device. the guide on developer.android.com talked about 50-android.rules but after a few deep searches i found this: http://groups.google.com/group/android-developers/browse_thread/thread/1d3488c601243686
Okay A few questions for you....
First I fixed the whole "couldnt find the (51-android.rules) file now I am having issues with executing ADB!
When in terminal this is what I get...
"[email protected]:/home/nick# /AndroidSDK/tools/adb
bash: /AndroidSDK/tools/adb: cannot execute binary file
[email protected]:/home/nick#"
and I also noticed something different from when I start terminal the first lines now state
"bash: : command not found
[email protected]:~$"
I dont remember the first line ever being there, but I could be mistaken!
Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Edit: You state creating "Mount point: /AndroidSDK" During Installation, and what I did was Just place my AndroidSDK at root so it is at "/AndroidSDK". I dont know if this makes a difference.
I am actually running ubuntu 8.10 ha! I just tried to update But I keep getting errors! is there anything I can change to get this to work on ubuntu 8.10?
nicholasbithell said:
First I fixed the whole "couldnt find the (51-android.rules) file now I am having issues with executing ADB!
When in terminal this is what I get...
"[email protected]:/home/nick# /AndroidSDK/tools/adb
bash: /AndroidSDK/tools/adb: cannot execute binary file
[email protected]:/home/nick#"
and I also noticed something different from when I start terminal the first lines now state
"bash: : command not found
[email protected]:~$"
Edit: You state creating "Mount point: /AndroidSDK" During Installation, and what I did was Just place my AndroidSDK at root so it is at "/AndroidSDK". I dont know if this makes a difference.
I am actually running ubuntu 8.10 ha! I just tried to update But I keep getting errors! is there anything I can change to get this to work on ubuntu 8.10?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
okay, a few things -
seems like your .bashrc file isn't setup right (?)
make sure that the two lines you inserted into it are on separate line
Code:
#AndroidDev PATH
export PATH=${PATH}:/AndroidSDK/tools
because maybe export PATH=${PATH}:/AndroidSDK/tools got commented on accident if you copy pasted.
When copying your SDK to the root of your filesystem, did you copy it as your own user or as root? you can use:
Code:
gksu nautilus
to copy system files with complete root privileges.
What exactly are you trying to update, Ubuntu or ... ? There shouldn't be a difference to get this working on 8.10, the only thing that seemed to change was the 51-android.rules file. Maybe this can help -
renaming it to 50-android.rules with
Code:
gksu nautilus
and deleting any backups (use CTRL+H to view hidden files).
restarting udev using:
Code:
sudo /etc/init.d/udev restart
Remember this is for 9.04, not 8.10. I hope this helps.
wddglr said:
okay, a few things -
seems like your .bashrc file isn't setup right (?)
make sure that the two lines you inserted into it are on separate line
Code:
#AndroidDev PATH
export PATH=${PATH}:/AndroidSDK/tools
because maybe export PATH=${PATH}:/AndroidSDK/tools got commented on accident if you copy pasted.
When copying your SDK to the root of your filesystem, did you copy it as your own user or as root? you can use:
Code:
gksu nautilus
to copy system files with complete root privileges.
What exactly are you trying to update, Ubuntu or ... ? There shouldn't be a difference to get this working on 8.10, the only thing that seemed to change was the 51-android.rules file. Maybe this can help -
renaming it to 50-android.rules with
Code:
gksu nautilus
and deleting any backups (use CTRL+H to view hidden files).
restarting udev using:
Code:
sudo /etc/init.d/udev restart
Remember this is for 8.10, not 9.04. I hope this helps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Okay this is how I moved my "AndroidSDK" Folder to root....
[email protected]:~$ su
Password:
[email protected]:/home/nick# mv /home/nick/Desktop/AndroidSDK /
[email protected]:/home/nick#"
And I went to the bashrc file and it is entered in there correctly.
This is still what I get even after restarting Udev...
" bash: : command not found
[email protected]:~$ adb
bash: /AndroidSDK/tools/adb: cannot execute binary file
[email protected]:~$ su
Password:
[email protected]:/home/nick# adb
bash: adb: command not found"
Edit: This is what my .bashrc file looks like, well the top part of it anyways....
#AndroidDev PATH
export PATH=${PATH}:/AndroidSDK/tools
# ~/.bashrc: executed by bash(1) for non-login shells.
# see /usr/share/doc/bash/examples/startup-files (in the package bash-doc)
# for examples
Okay your .bashrc is setup right and it's recognizing adb and its directory.
I would say it's something to do with permissions. since you moved it under su, you are not the owner so i would say that you'd have to change the permissions of /AndroidSDK
you can do that with -
Code:
gksu nautilus
Navigate to /
Right click on /AndroidSDK and select Properties
Click on Permissions tab
Select your user account as the owner
hopefully now it will function correctly
wddglr said:
Okay your .bashrc is setup right and it's recognizing adb and its directory.
I would say it's something to do with permissions. since you moved it under su, you are not the owner so i would say that you'd have to change the permissions of /AndroidSDK
you can do that with -
Code:
gksu nautilus
Navigate to /
Right click on /AndroidSDK and select Properties
Click on Permissions tab
Select your user account as the owner
hopefully now it will function correctly
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I dont understand what this line does...
"gksu nautilus"
when i type it in it asks me for my administrative password and then after i put it in it hangs for a sec and then back to...
bash: : command not found
[email protected]:~$ gksu nautilus
[email protected]:~$
nautilus is the file browser, while using gksu nautilus you can use the file browser under root privileges
wddglr said:
nautilus is the file browser, while using gksu nautilus you can use the file browser under root privileges
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I dont have Nautilus as a file browser I have Thunar I believe.
Then gksu thunar
wddglr said:
nautilus is the file browser, while using gksu nautilus you can use the file browser under root privileges
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
For permissions it says that I am the owner and the group (I=Nick) for Others it says Read and Write, Access says Read and write. So it seems it has all the right permissions. Any other Ideas?
Partitioning HD
First off, thank you for this thread, it's most excellent. I have a question that is slightly off topic, but not so much. I have Ubuntu 9.04 installed on my recovery partition. This partition is only 10 GB, while I have Vista on my main. I have almost 100 GB free on my main drive, and what I want to know is, if I resized my partitions to give more space to Ubuntu, how would it affect my comp? (if at all). And which OS should I be on while resizing, Ubuntu or Vista?
Hey TF owners,
For anyone looking for a way to mount their Transformer to Linux Mint, I wrote a script to automate the process of configuring your machine to allow you to browse/modify files on the tablet's SSD. This will probably also work on Ubuntu, but I have only so far tested it on Linux Mint.
Download the attached file, and run it.
Edit: Connect your Transformer to your PC before running.
Edit 2: You only need to run this script once - not every time you connect the tablet to your PC.
Hit the thanks button/comment if this worked for you. If not, also comment and I/someone will probably help you out. Also, if anyone tests it on Ubuntu successfully, be sure to comment and let people know.
Note: All configuration files are backed up in the script before changes are made. You can always revert safely.
I'll throw in the ever so popular "use at your own risk" for safe measure.
Cheers.
June 29: Updated script uploaded.
-Cleaner
-Removes an unnecessary comment pushed into fstab in the previous script
-Already executable. Just run it. [Thanks MagnusRagnarok for the idea]
-Packed in 7z from Linux Mint this time as opposed to in zip format from the TF, for [hopefully] universal accessibility.
-md5sum 615f2bfa820ee9ac8ea2c967149a2f03 TransformerMount2.7z
ok so maybe a stupid question, but does my tf need to be rooted to try this? also if you can create an automated script to install a linux distro you think it would be possible for you to create a script to root?? btw any idea on what actually works? can the tegra 2 run with compiz??
0lddirtypaki said:
ok so maybe a stupid question, but does my tf need to be rooted to try this? also if you can create an automated script to install a linux distro you think it would be possible for you to create a script to root?? btw any idea on what actually works? can the tegra 2 run with compiz??
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I thin you've misunderstood the intention of the OP.
It was to be able to mount your Transformer under Linux and be able to read/write the files stored on the Transformer's internal storage. Not to actually install a full blown Linux Distro on your Transformer.
Wow, talk about reading before posting.
Sent from my Transformer TF101 using XDA Premium App
only on linux mint--
does it work on ubuntu?
Yes, this works perfectly on ubuntu
I have a problem extracting the zip file with Ubuntu 10.10
Do I need an alternate unzip program? If so please specify. I do not run MS products.
Error:
7-Zip 9.04 beta Copyright (c) 1999-2009 Igor Pavlov 2009-05-30
p7zip Version 9.04 (locale=en_CA.UTF-8,Utf16=on,HugeFiles=on,4 CPUs)
Processing archive: /tmp/TransformerMount.zip
Extracting TransformerMount.bash Unsupported Method
Sub items Errors: 1
I can extract it with 7zip on Windows on the work computer, and with both Explorer and AndroZip on the TF without issue.
Sent from my Milestone using XDA App
Acer Mod of the script
I'm trying to edit the file for use with an Acer Iconia. So far everything works but the modifying of the android.rules file. You see, it doesn't exist on my laptop (mint 11) in the directory the script looks at nor is there an android.rules file in lib/udev/rules.d. While I could probably write a rules file and make it work, I'd like to know where it comes from and maybe discover why it does not exist on my system. Anyone have any ideas? Also - rootblock - if I can get this to work would you object to my posting it in the Iconia forum? Thanks!
UPDATE:
Creating the file worked fine. Any reason to edit the script to check if the file exists and create it if it doe not or am I the exception to the rule? i.e. Would most users have it there in the first place?
3DSammy said:
I have a problem extracting the zip file with Ubuntu 10.10
Do I need an alternate unzip program? If so please specify. I do not run MS products.
Error:
7-Zip 9.04 beta Copyright (c) 1999-2009 Igor Pavlov 2009-05-30
p7zip Version 9.04 (locale=en_CA.UTF-8,Utf16=on,HugeFiles=on,4 CPUs)
Processing archive: /tmp/TransformerMount.zip
Extracting TransformerMount.bash Unsupported Method
Sub items Errors: 1
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Probably a bad download. And you could also try file-roller to open it (I think its installed by default, it is on Debian/Gentoo)
Tortel1210 said:
Probably a bad download
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I installed the "p7zip" deb, re-downloaded a few times with Firefox and even tried wget. Each time I get the same error result. I was more interested in examining the bash file as I do not have a TF yet. Oh well not a big deal.
3DSammy said:
I have a problem extracting the zip file with Ubuntu 10.10
Do I need an alternate unzip program? If so please specify. I do not run MS products.
Error:
7-Zip 9.04 beta Copyright (c) 1999-2009 Igor Pavlov 2009-05-30
p7zip Version 9.04 (locale=en_CA.UTF-8,Utf16=on,HugeFiles=on,4 CPUs)
Processing archive: /tmp/TransformerMount.zip
Extracting TransformerMount.bash Unsupported Method
Sub items Errors: 1
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Had the same issue with Archive manager - Xarchiver worked, however.
ubuntu & Asus transformer
If anyone having a problem with mtpfs on ubuntu especially version 10.4 ( segfault problem which prevents from mounting the TF), use newer version of mtpfs in the link below.
http://pkgs.org/download/debian-wheezy/debian-main-i386/mtpfs_0.9-3_i386.deb.html.
1. install the package
ubuntu> sudo dpkg -i mtpfs_0.9-3_i386.deb
2. Then run rootblock script if you did not do it.
just wondering, would this have any effect for the adb connections ? My ubuntu cannot find the transformer from adb but could mount it just find
Try This....
anyone having issues try one of the following extensions.. tar.gz would be my first suggestion for those using ubuntu like myself. i also took the liberty of changing the perms to exe on the script before i compressed all these so now all you need to do is
1.download the extension pack i upped
(find the one that works for you)
2.open file
3.execute
*i also tossed the edited script in the pack for anyone who cannot get it to open.
fyi; ark also worked for me to access the file from the op, while my 7z kept erroring out.
ari197 said:
just wondering, would this have any effect for the adb connections ? My ubuntu cannot find the transformer from adb but could mount it just find
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can access the TF with adb just fine. Just cd to the android-sdk-linux_x86/platform-tools folder containing adb and run:
Code:
./adb devices
or
Code:
./adb shell
if that folder isn't already configured into your path. Works for me anyway.
I've been looking at this and trying to do it with udev instead, since I want the dynamic creation of the folder in /media. Mounting works great, but removing doesn't. So anyone with knowledge of udev rules is more than welcome to give me some hints. Here's the rules so far:
Code:
See below...
The command run when removing works if I enter it as root in a terminal, so it seems to me that it's either not run when removing or it's failing somehow when run from udev. Edit: I've figured out that it's not run at all. Looking into it...
Also, hint for those who follow the manual instructions you could also get the necessary permissions through Users and Groups instead of editing the groups file. You still have to edit /etc/fuse.conf to allow other though.
These are instructions for automatically mounting and unmounting your pad (not keyboard!). This will create (when plugged in and detected) and remove (when unplugged) the Transformer directory under /media, so that the experience is more in line with other USB devices.
For those of you who already have run the script in the first post, you need to do some cleanup. Edit /etc/fstab and /etc/udev/rules.d/51-android.rules and remove the lines which the script created. Which lines in fstab should be straight forward, and in 51-android.rules look for rows that either have no idVendor set or has it set to 0b05. If unsure, post here FIRST before making changes!
This is the content of /etc/udev/rules.d/51-android.rules:
Code:
ACTION=="add", SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ENV{ID_MODEL}=="MTP", ENV{ID_MODEL_ID}=="4e0f", MODE="0666", RUN+="/bin/bash -c 'mkdir -p /media/Transformer && mtpfs /media/Transformer -o allow_other'"
ACTION=="remove", SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ENV{ID_MODEL}=="MTP", ENV{ID_MODEL_ID}=="4e0f", RUN+="/bin/bash -c 'fusermount -u /media/Transformer && rmdir /media/Transformer'"
If you have other Android devices you may or may not have other lines here too. If so, just add these two lines to the end of the file. My Transformer is bought in Sweden so if things don't work for you, maybe there's another idProduct/ID_MODEL_ID out there? Check with lsusb when your pad is plugged in, the vendor (xxxx) and product (yyyy) ID is [xxxx:yyyy] on the line that says ASUSTek Computer Inc. For my pad, the productID/ID_MODEL_ID is 4e0f.
You need to uncomment allow_other in /etc/fuse.conf and add your user to the fuse group (preferably via Users and Groups) apart from adding the above two lines to your 51-android.rules:
Start Users and Groups, choose your user and press Advanced settings. Under the tab User Privileges you should mark Mount user-space filesystems (FUSE).
Open and edit /etc/fuse.conf (see below on how to use nano). Uncomment user_allow_other in the end (remove the # at the beginning of the line).
After this you should reboot your computer. This will have two effects: The udev rules will be reloaded so the changes apply, and your user will have the necessary privileges granted.
Now you can try to plug in your pad and see if it shows up under /media. Give it some time, it takes a while. (Approx. 30 seconds for me.)
A note on editing files from the terminal window
When editing files from the terminal I always use nano. The command is (if opening a file that requires super user rights):
sudo nano [path-to-file]
The editing is straightforward, works just like any other text editor. When you're finished, press Ctrl+X (Exit) and answer the question with Y (if your system is in english that is) if you want to overwrite the earlier file.
Problems?
If you have ADB activated you could try rmbell's udev rules. This removes the match ID_MODEL == MTP and changes the productID to 4e1f. The productID changes depending on what functions are activated, as discussed in this post by ritterkeks. If you want the pad to be mounted with and without ADB activated, you can add all four rules.
If the udev rules doesn't work, run this command in the terminal and see what happens when you plug the pad in:
udevadm monitor --property --udev
Exit with Ctrl+C. Are the values the same as in the udev rules you're using? If not, change accordingly or deactivate some function which has made the productID change.
"unable to mount location" error
I'm getting an error that reads "Unable to mount location"
Then:
fusermount: failed to open /etc/fuse.conf: Permission denied
fusermount: option allow_other only allowed if 'user_allow_other' is set in /etc/fuse.conf
I'm a monkey in a spaceship when it comes to some of this stuff Any idea what I should do (in layman's terms)?
All help appreciated!
I'm not sure if your problem is from the script in the first post or my instructions. But as the message says you need to edit fuse.conf. Also, you need to be a member of the FUSE group.
Open and edit fuse.conf with this command in a terminal:
sudo nano /etc/fuse.conf
Uncomment (remove the #) user_allow_other in the end, exit with Ctrl+X and save with Y.
Start Users and Groups, choose your user and press Advanced settings. Under the tab User Privileges you should mark Mount user-space filesystems (FUSE). I believe that you need to reboot after this change, otherwise the necessary privileges hasn't kicked in.
Try it and let me know
[GUIDE] Make your android device True Root! - by Napalm
I did this on my Nexus 7 but it should all still apply to most devices. You might need to follow different driver advice for other devices.
Pre-requirements:
Installation of the SDK platform-tools.
Have platform-tools directory of the SDK in your PATH environment variable (Google this if your unsure).
This was all done a Windows installation, but access to Linux will be required later on. Mac users might be able to get away with doing the Linux portions directly on there computer. Please let me know if your a Mac user and have had success with this and I will update the guide with details.
Step 1: Driver Installation (READ THIS, do not skip)
First I needed to update to the usb_driver from SDK and then modify the installation inf with the IDs for Nexus 7.
Browse to your SDK directory and futher into <SDK>\extras\google\usb_driver
Open android_winusb.inf in your favorite text editor.
Find the appropriate section Google.NTx86 if your on 32bit or Google.NTamd64 if your on 64bit (doesnt matter that your using intel chip). Now find the ";Google Nexus 7" line inside that section and you'll see a series of settings below. Add the following lines at the end of that block.
Code:
%CompositeAdbInterface% = USB_Install, USB\VID_18D1&PID_4E44&MI_01
%CompositeAdbInterface% = USB_Install, USB\VID_18D1&PID_D001
These are the identifiers for the Nexus 7 recovery and bootloader usb connections.
Step 2: Standard Root
Next you'll need access to the bootloader and recovery mode so follow this guide to unlock and "root" your device. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1741395
Here I've laid out the steps I did instead of the above. Remember this wipes your device and its internal memory completely, so backup your data.
All local work is done from the desktop, so when you first open a command prompt or if you close it and reopen it enter the following.
Code:
cd Desktop
Download CWM recovery image to Desktop. http://goo.im/devs/birdman/CWM-grouper-recovery.img
Download SuperSU CWM update zip to Desktop. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1538053
Go to Start or Start>Run and type in: cmd
Code:
cd Desktop
fastboot oem unlock
fastboot flash recovery CWM-grouper-recovery.img
adb reboot recovery
Now the device will reboot into recovery mode. If windows asks for drivers for the "new" usb connection direct the wizard to your <SDK>\extras\google\usb_driver. And the earlier modifications made in Step 1 should mean it installs the device and adb link.
Once drivers are installed and every is good go back to the command prompt, and type
Code:
adb devices
It should list your device with the word "recovery" next to it. If it doesn't then your device is not in recovery mode. Now enter in the following commands into the command prompt and it will make your devices CWM installation permanent.
Code:
adb shell
mount /system
cd /system
mv recovery-from-boot.p recovery-from-boot.bak
umount /system
exit
Now to install SuperSU. Tap "reboot system now" on the screen (if you dont see CWM, press the power button to show/hide it). Wait for the reboot. And then enter the following into the command prompt.
Code:
adb push CWM-SuperSU-v0.94.zip /sdcard
adb reboot recovery
Wait for reboot. You should see an image in the center of the screen. You might have to press the power button to toggle the visibility of the CWM menu. If you miss-tap on the screen, the power button acts like a back button and will return you to the previous menu screen.
Tap "install zip from sdcard" and then "choose zip from sdcard". Then select the CWM-SuperSU-v0.94.zip file (You may have to use the vol-up/down keys to highlight this if the file is listed off the bottom of the screen)
Let that install and then go back on the menus and choose "reboot system now".
Now if all is well after the reboot, if you run the following commands in command prompt.
Code:
adb shell
su
SuperSU might now prompt you on your devices screen to accept the root access, and then hopefully your command prompt should end in a # (this means you are root user 0). Now type exit twice to get back to the windows command prompt.
Now if you were to type "adb root" you will notice it tells you adbd is not able to go "full root". This will be solved in the next step. This is going to get complicated. You have been warned.
Step 3: True Rooting!
Now your device is "rooted". This is true, you now have a "su" binary installed and a visible app in the OS to manage super user privileges, but as a developer I want to be able to use things like "hierarchy viewer" on my live device. And have the room to do what I need to debug complex situations. So this is where True Root comes in. This essentially turns the device into a debug device that you would get direct from the manufacturer.
You may be able to get away with doing the following in a different way and you may not need to compile anything since fastboot has a boot flash option, but since I've never used this I've done it this way. If you prefer you can explore things in that direction, but be warned I've not tried it and so I have no idea if it would work.
Now for this step you will need access to a Linux installation. If you've never used Linux before don't be too afraid. But I am going to have to gloss over a few things. If you need further help on this step you will need to post in the topic and allow the community to advise on best pratices.
If you dont have access to a Linux installation or your newb to Linux then go here and follow the steps. It will add Linux to your PCs boot options and then you can go in and out of Linux when you need it. http://www.ubuntu.com/download/help/install-ubuntu-with-windows
Remember if your working on this step from a fresh Linux install like the above then you will probably want to install the android sdk for linux, at least enough to use adb from linux. This topic might help with this: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=537508
Ok now from Linux follow along. You'll need git installed for this "apt-get install git".
We now need to compile the apps needed to modify our boot image. Details can be found here https://gist.github.com/1087757 but you might just want to follow my specific instructions.
Open a console window and type.
Code:
git clone https://android.googlesource.com/platform/system/core
cd core/libmincrypt
gcc -c *.c -I../include
ar rcs libmincrypt.a *.o
cd ../mkbootimg
gcc mkbootimg.c -o mkbootimg -I../include ../libmincrypt/libmincrypt.a
cd ../cpio
gcc mkbootfs.c -o mkbootfs -I../include
cd ../..
git clone https://github.com/beide/Bootimg-scripts.git
cd Bootimg-scripts
cp ../core/mkbootimg/mkbootimg ./
cp ../core/cpio/mkbootfs ./
Ok that has prapared the a Bootimg-scripts directory with the perl scripts we need and compiled binaries they use. Now make sure you have perl installed "apt-get install perl".
This is where things are going to split and it becomes your best guess as to how to proceed. I will show you the method I used from Windows. But if you have a installation of the SDK in Linux then you should be able to just open a new console and continue from here and ignore the bits I used to transfer files between Linux and Windows.
Back to the command console on Windows. We use adb to identify our boot partition and extract it.
Code:
adb shell cat /proc/partitions
You will now be presented with a list of paritions on your Nexus 7. Each block here for my device is 1K. So I'm looking down the list and I see one thats 8192 blocks, called "mmcblk0p2". Thats 8MB and I'm taking a educated guess that this is the boot partition, and for my Nexus 7 it is. (Note: if anyone has a better way of determining the boot parition please let me know).
Now we need to take a image of the partition. From here on out replace my partition device name in the commands below with yours if it differs.
Code:
adb shell
cat /dev/block/mmcblk0p2 > /sdcard/boot.img
exit
adb pull /sdcard/boot.img
Now if you want to confirm that this is the boot partition you will need to open the image file in your favorite hex editor and confirm the first bytes of the file are "ANDROID!" in ascii.
Now I FTP'd this image file over to my Linux box and into the Bootimg-scripts directory we created previously. If your following these steps from Linux then you should be able to open up the file manager and move the file into the folder.
Now back to Linux. We'll need to modify repack-bootimg.pl with a text editor of your choice. I leave this up to the reader. We need to modify line 19 the system call so that it starts with "./mkbootimg" rather than "mkbootimg". This is so perl fines mkbootimg in the local directory rather than anywhere else.
Now type in the linux console we had open in the Bootimg-scripts directory the following command.
Code:
perl ./unpack-bootimg.pl boot.img
ls -l
You should see boot.img-kernel.gz and boot.img-ramdisk.cpio.gz and a directory boot.img-ramdisk.
Open boot.img-ramdisk/default.prop in your favorite text editor and make the following adjustments.
ro.secure=1 should be edited to ro.secure=0 and ro.debuggable=0 should be ro.debuggable=1 and if you want ro.allow.mock.location can also be changed to 1 if you like.
Now we've made the required changes to our initrd (initial ramdisk) files we need to repack them to put back on the device.
Code:
perl ./repack-bootimg.pl boot.img-kernel.gz boot.img-ramdisk boot-debug.img
You will now have a new file called boot-debug.img. This contains our modified initial ramdisk. It will probably be smaller than the original. This is no concern as the original we copied was an image of the entire disk including the unused areas, where as the new image is only the data we need.
I now FTP'd this file back to my Windows machine, but as before if your doing this from Linux then you can just carry on.
We now need to flash this image file back onto the Nexus 7 replacing our current boot image. To do this we need to put the device into bootloader mode.
Back to your console/command window, and enter in.
Code:
adb reboot bootloader
Windows might want to install drivers and as before direct the wizard to <SDK>\extras\google\usb_driver.
Once your device is in bootloader mode. Go back to the console/command and enter in.
Code:
fastboot flash boot boot-debug.img
fastboot reboot
Now cross your fingers and hopefully you will get the boot loading animation and your device will get back to the Android launcher.
Now finally from your console/command window type in:
Code:
adb root
Hopefully if all is well it should reply with "adbd is already running as root". Now if you type in:
Code:
adb shell getprop ro.debuggable
It should tell you that its set to 1, meaning it is switched on.
Congratulations!! You have now True Rooted your device!.
You can now debug even system level apps, see log messages from all processes and logcat will now resolve all app names. Use Hierarchy Viewer on a live device instead of the horrible emulator. Do absolutely everything with your device that you want.
Happy hacking,
Napalm :good:
better late than never.....a thorough quide
Thanks for this guide.
Sent from my Nexus 7
Thanks.
Napalm2 said:
[GUIDE] Make your android device True Root! - by Napalm
I did this on my Nexus 7 but it should all still apply to most devices. You might need to follow different driver advice for other devices.
Pre-requirements:
Installation of the SDK platform-tools.
Have platform-tools directory of the SDK in your PATH environment variable (Google this if your unsure).
This was all done a Windows installation, but access to Linux will be required later on. Mac users might be able to get away with doing the Linux portions directly on there computer. Please let me know if your a Mac user and have had success with this and I will update the guide with details.
Step 1: Driver Installation (READ THIS, do not skip)
First I needed to update to the usb_driver from SDK and then modify the installation inf with the IDs for Nexus 7.
Browse to your SDK directory and futher into <SDK>\extras\google\usb_driver
Open android_winusb.inf in your favorite text editor.
Find the appropriate section Google.NTx86 if your on 32bit or Google.NTamd64 if your on 64bit (doesnt matter that your using intel chip). Now find the ";Google Nexus 7" line inside that section and you'll see a series of settings below. Add the following lines at the end of that block.
Code:
%CompositeAdbInterface% = USB_Install, USB\VID_18D1&PID_4E44&MI_01
%CompositeAdbInterface% = USB_Install, USB\VID_18D1&PID_D001
These are the identifiers for the Nexus 7 recovery and bootloader usb connections.
Step 2: Standard Root
Next you'll need access to the bootloader and recovery mode so follow this guide to unlock and "root" your device. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1741395
Here I've laid out the steps I did instead of the above. Remember this wipes your device and its internal memory completely, so backup your data.
All local work is done from the desktop, so when you first open a command prompt or if you close it and reopen it enter the following.
Code:
cd Desktop
Download CWM recovery image to Desktop. http://goo.im/devs/birdman/CWM-grouper-recovery.img
Download SuperSU CWM update zip to Desktop. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1538053
Go to Start or Start>Run and type in: cmd
Code:
cd Desktop
fastboot oem unlock
fastboot flash recovery CWM-grouper-recovery.img
adb reboot recovery
Now the device will reboot into recovery mode. If windows asks for drivers for the "new" usb connection direct the wizard to your <SDK>\extras\google\usb_driver. And the earlier modifications made in Step 1 should mean it installs the device and adb link.
Once drivers are installed and every is good go back to the command prompt, and type
Code:
adb devices
It should list your device with the word "recovery" next to it. If it doesn't then your device is not in recovery mode. Now enter in the following commands into the command prompt and it will make your devices CWM installation permanent.
Code:
adb shell
mount /system
cd /system
mv recovery-from-boot.p recovery-from-boot.bak
umount /system
exit
Now to install SuperSU. Tap "reboot system now" on the screen (if you dont see CWM, press the power button to show/hide it). Wait for the reboot. And then enter the following into the command prompt.
Code:
adb push CWM-SuperSU-v0.94.zip /sdcard
adb reboot recovery
Wait for reboot. You should see an image in the center of the screen. You might have to press the power button to toggle the visibility of the CWM menu. If you miss-tap on the screen, the power button acts like a back button and will return you to the previous menu screen.
Tap "install zip from sdcard" and then "choose zip from sdcard". Then select the CWM-SuperSU-v0.94.zip file (You may have to use the vol-up/down keys to highlight this if the file is listed off the bottom of the screen)
Let that install and then go back on the menus and choose "reboot system now".
Now if all is well after the reboot, if you run the following commands in command prompt.
Code:
adb shell
su
SuperSU might now prompt you on your devices screen to accept the root access, and then hopefully your command prompt should end in a # (this means you are root user 0). Now type exit twice to get back to the windows command prompt.
Now if you were to type "adb root" you will notice it tells you adbd is not able to go "full root". This will be solved in the next step. This is going to get complicated. You have been warned.
Step 3: True Rooting!
Now your device is "rooted". This is true, you now have a "su" binary installed and a visible app in the OS to manage super user privileges, but as a developer I want to be able to use things like "hierarchy viewer" on my live device. And have the room to do what I need to debug complex situations. So this is where True Root comes in. This essentially turns the device into a debug device that you would get direct from the manufacturer.
You may be able to get away with doing the following in a different way and you may not need to compile anything since fastboot has a boot flash option, but since I've never used this I've done it this way. If you prefer you can explore things in that direction, but be warned I've not tried it and so I have no idea if it would work.
Now for this step you will need access to a Linux installation. If you've never used Linux before don't be too afraid. But I am going to have to gloss over a few things. If you need further help on this step you will need to post in the topic and allow the community to advise on best pratices.
If you dont have access to a Linux installation or your newb to Linux then go here and follow the steps. It will add Linux to your PCs boot options and then you can go in and out of Linux when you need it. http://www.ubuntu.com/download/help/install-ubuntu-with-windows
Remember if your working on this step from a fresh Linux install like the above then you will probably want to install the android sdk for linux, at least enough to use adb from linux. This topic might help with this: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=537508
Ok now from Linux follow along. You'll need git installed for this "apt-get install git".
We now need to compile the apps needed to modify our boot image. Details can be found here https://gist.github.com/1087757 but you might just want to follow my specific instructions.
Open a console window and type.
Code:
git clone https://android.googlesource.com/platform/system/core
cd core/libmincrypt
gcc -c *.c -I../include
ar rcs libmincrypt.a *.o
cd ../mkbootimg
gcc mkbootimg.c -o mkbootimg -I../include ../libmincrypt/libmincrypt.a
cd ../cpio
gcc mkbootfs.c -o mkbootfs -I../include
cd ../..
git clone https://github.com/beide/Bootimg-scripts.git
cd Bootimg-scripts
cp ../core/mkbootimg/mkbootimg ./
cp ../core/cpio/mkbootfs ./
Ok that has prapared the a Bootimg-scripts directory with the perl scripts we need and compiled binaries they use. Now make sure you have perl installed "apt-get install perl".
This is where things are going to split and it becomes your best guess as to how to proceed. I will show you the method I used from Windows. But if you have a installation of the SDK in Linux then you should be able to just open a new console and continue from here and ignore the bits I used to transfer files between Linux and Windows.
Back to the command console on Windows. We use adb to identify our boot partition and extract it.
Code:
adb shell cat /proc/partitions
You will now be presented with a list of paritions on your Nexus 7. Each block here for my device is 1K. So I'm looking down the list and I see one thats 8192 blocks, called "mmcblk0p2". Thats 8MB and I'm taking a educated guess that this is the boot partition, and for my Nexus 7 it is. (Note: if anyone has a better way of determining the boot parition please let me know).
Now we need to take a image of the partition. From here on out replace my partition device name in the commands below with yours if it differs.
Code:
adb shell
cat /dev/block/mmcblk0p2 > /sdcard/boot.img
exit
adb pull /sdcard/boot.img
Now if you want to confirm that this is the boot partition you will need to open the image file in your favorite hex editor and confirm the first bytes of the file are "ANDROID!" in ascii.
Now I FTP'd this image file over to my Linux box and into the Bootimg-scripts directory we created previously. If your following these steps from Linux then you should be able to open up the file manager and move the file into the folder.
Now back to Linux. We'll need to modify repack-bootimg.pl with a text editor of your choice. I leave this up to the reader. We need to modify line 19 the system call so that it starts with "./mkbootimg" rather than "mkbootimg". This is so perl fines mkbootimg in the local directory rather than anywhere else.
Now type in the linux console we had open in the Bootimg-scripts directory the following command.
Code:
perl ./unpack-bootimg.pl boot.img
ls -l
You should see boot.img-kernel.gz and boot.img-ramdisk.cpio.gz and a directory boot.img-ramdisk.
Open boot.img-ramdisk/default.prop in your favorite text editor and make the following adjustments.
ro.secure=1 should be edited to ro.secure=0 and ro.debuggable=0 should be ro.debuggable=1 and if you want ro.allow.mock.location can also be changed to 1 if you like.
Now we've made the required changes to our initrd (initial ramdisk) files we need to repack them to put back on the device.
Code:
perl ./repack-bootimg.pl boot.img-kernel.gz boot.img-ramdisk boot-debug.img
You will now have a new file called boot-debug.img. This contains our modified initial ramdisk. It will probably be smaller than the original. This is no concern as the original we copied was an image of the entire disk including the unused areas, where as the new image is only the data we need.
I now FTP'd this file back to my Windows machine, but as before if your doing this from Linux then you can just carry on.
We now need to flash this image file back onto the Nexus 7 replacing our current boot image. To do this we need to put the device into bootloader mode.
Back to your console/command window, and enter in.
Code:
adb reboot bootloader
Windows might want to install drivers and as before direct the wizard to <SDK>\extras\google\usb_driver.
Once your device is in bootloader mode. Go back to the console/command and enter in.
Code:
fastboot flash boot boot-debug.img
fastboot reboot
Now cross your fingers and hopefully you will get the boot loading animation and your device will get back to the Android launcher.
Now finally from your console/command window type in:
Code:
adb root
Hopefully if all is well it should reply with "adbd is already running as root". Now if you type in:
Code:
adb shell getprop ro.debuggable
It should tell you that its set to 1, meaning it is switched on.
Congratulations!! You have now True Rooted your device!.
You can now debug even system level apps, see log messages from all processes and logcat will now resolve all app names. Use Hierarchy Viewer on a live device instead of the horrible emulator. Do absolutely everything with your device that you want.
Happy hacking,
Napalm :good:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
can't find recovery-from-boot.p. Y?
5implelove said:
can't find recovery-from-boot.p. Y?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try not to quote a post that big mate, makes navigation a pain
5implelove said:
can't find recovery-from-boot.p. Y?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That part is only for the Nexus 7, and if you are using a Nexus 7 with custom ROM then this file may not exist. If you are using stock on a Nexus 7 then the only other question is whether you have renamed/moved/deleted it before. Once you
Code:
cd /system
type
Code:
ls -l recovery*
and see if anything is listed.
Napalm
Where did you find the info for step one?
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2
I worked it out. You can find your VID and PID from your unknown device in Device Manager. You have to right click the device > Properties > Details > Choose Hardware Ids from the list. Since the driver from Google supports the same interfaces for other devices we can assume it works with the Nexus 7. I made the modifications and it works. Below is a full list of IDs if anyone wants them.
Napalm
Code:
Nexus 7
USB\VID_18D1&PID_4E40 : fastboot
USB\VID_18D1&PID_D001 : adb-recovery
USB\VID_18D1&PID_4E42 : composite-adb-interface (with mtp)
USB\VID_18D1&PID_4E42&MI_00: mtp-composite
USB\VID_18D1&PID_4E42&MI_01: adb-composite
USB\VID_18D1&PID_4E44 : composite-adb-interface (with ptp)
USB\VID_18D1&PID_4E44&MI_00: mtp-composite
USB\VID_18D1&PID_4E44&MI_01: adb-composite
USB\VID_18D1&PID_4E41 : mtp-only
USB\VID_18D1&PID_4E43 : ptp-only
Galaxy Nexus
USB\VID_18D1&PID_4E30 : fastboot
USB\VID_18D1&PID_D001 : adb-recovery
USB\VID_04E8&PID_6860 : composite-adb-interface (with mtp)
USB\VID_04E8&PID_6860&MI_00: mtp-composite
USB\VID_04E8&PID_6860&MI_01: adb-composite
USB\VID_04E8&PID_6866 : composite-adb-interface (with ptp)
USB\VID_04E8&PID_6866&MI_00: ptp-composite
USB\VID_04E8&PID_6866&MI_01: adb-composite
USB\VID_04E8&PID_685C : mtp-only
USB\VID_04E8&PID_6865 : ptp-only
Great guide, but why not just post up the new initrd for people that don't want to do this? It looks as if its the same for all devices.
As requested. Attached are the compiled tools and modified scripts used and the original and modified boot partition image files for the Nexus 7 running Android 4.1.2.
Napalm
Update for Android 4.2
Attached is the original and modified boot partition image files for the Nexus 7 running Android 4.2.
You can update yours with the following:
Code:
adb reboot-bootloader
fastboot flash boot nakasi-jop40c-android42-boot-new.img
Napalm
Attached is the original and modified boot partition image files for the Nexus 7 GSM/HSPA+ running Android 4.2.1
You can update yours with the following:
Code:
adb reboot-bootloader
fastboot flash boot nakasig-jop40d-android421-boot-new.img
Napalm
Amazing !
Is it possible to post the same file for N7 4.2.1 Wifi version?
Thanks
JulienDev said:
Amazing !
Is it possible to post the same file for N7 4.2.1 Wifi version?
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If I'm not mistaken, they are the same for wifi and 3g versions?
Same as before.. just an update for Android 4.2.2... as per the previous posts.. no idea if the non-GSM variant has the same boot partition. If anyone can test please post.
Attached is the original and modified boot partition image files for the Nexus 7 GSM/HSPA+ running Android 4.2.2
You can update yours with the following:
Code:
adb reboot-bootloader
fastboot flash boot nakasig-jdq39-android422-boot-mod.img
Getting a No_Command error
Hi, I am trying to true root Android M on my Nexus 7 2012 Wifi edition. I followed the steps here and was able to create the boot.img with the ro.debuggable=1 and ro.secure=0. however if i flash this boot.img the device boots and gets stuck in a android bot with a Red ! (bang) triangle. and says No command.
Any idea how to get ro.debuggable on for Android M?
Yep, you read that correctly. I have optware, ssh, samba, transmission, and flexget working on my Minix X5 Mini. This should work for any rooted device which has an adb connection enabled. This will work on the original ROM. In fact, I use the stock ROM. For those not using a Minix device this should work on any ARM device. Sorry but all the binaries are built on ARM.
JUST AS EVERY OTHER DEVELOPER: I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE IF YOU BRICK YOUR DEVICE! MAKE A BACKUP!
Requirements:
Linux box with adb (don't ask me about windows, I don't support bad habits)
clockworkmod (for a backup)
root
internet connection
Process:
Make a backup of your ROM!
Download files (gitHub)
You have two options here:
Download the zip via https://github.com/erichlf/AndroidSeedBox/archive/master.zip and unzip it.
Clone the repo using git via 'git clone [email protected]:erichlf/AndroidSeedBox.git'
Make script executable
chmod +x optware-etc.sh
Obtain adb connection to device (covered in another thread)
Gain root access on local machine (adb seemed to require this for things to work)
sudo su
Run script and follow directions
./optware-etc.sh
Use SManager to run /opt/home/root/sysinit at every restart.
Notes:
The script can be modified to change the various programs that I install. You could exchange transmission for deluge for example.
Transmission can be accessed from the minix through localhost:9091 or from some other machine using your ip-address and the port 9091. If that doesn't work you should edit the config file located at /opt/home/root/.config/transmission-daemon/settings.json
username: root
password: you provided this in the install script
Without SManager nothing will start automatically. However, if you have a ROM which has init.d support you can move the scripts in /opt/etc/init.d to /etc/init.d I would suggest maybe linking the two instead of just moving the scripts or possibly adding a script to /etc/init.d which runs the items in /opt/etc/init.d The reason is because when installing things using ipkg the startup scripts will be placed in /opt/etc/init.d and not /etc/init.d However, it is extremely important that optware is started, and this is partly what sysinit accomplishes.
To list available packages
ipkg list
To install a new package use the command
ipkg install <new package>
To remove a package use the command
ipkg remove <package to remove>
cron is weird and I couldn't get it to work like it should, but I got it to work
While on the Android device (ssh or terminal emulator)
Create a .crond file in the home directory of your device (/opt/home/root/) with some schedule in it. Remember to leave a blank line at the end of the file.
Tell cron about the .crond file
crontab -u root /opt/home/root/.crond
Make sure cron sees the cron file
crontab -l
If you want to edit your cronfile use a text editor and edit the file directly and then tell cron about the file again.
Many things are installed in what seem like strange places, so use
which <binary you are looking for>
Feel free to help develop the code. I think what would be best is an update.zip or a CWM flashable zip. Right now I don't know how to do this, but once I get more time I will look into it. So, any help on this front is welcomed.
Enjoy!
I really wish you would have kept the repo up. It seems kind of pointless to go through all that trouble just to delete the repo and leave people wondering what you did.
I have been busy and didn't update this particular post, since there had been no activity on it.
git clone [email protected]:erichlf/androidseedbox.git
https://bitbucket.org/erichlf/androidseedbox/get/master.zip
Sorry, I didn't need to be rude. I was just excited to find this and then sad when it was gone. Thanks for pointing me in the right direction!
I can't find much of any information on hacking the microsoft android emulator. Ideally, I'd like to get it working with superuser, exposed, etc, so it can be a fully functional way to see how android itself and apps work in different environments, all from my desktop. Also, I can just play around with stuff that I wouldn't touch on my tablet for fear of bricking it. I like playing with things.
Disclaimer: I'm not interested in maintaining anything, but as mentioned above, I can't find any information. Therefore, I'm simply posting what information I have here, in the hopes it will interest someone else enough to take a harder look at it. My original post was over here, but I've expanded beyond simply adding supersu to the image.
Things I can't do:
- Install superuser
- Install Xposed
- Install Google Play for anything more recent than KitKat
- Install recovery scripts
Things I can do:
- Run commands as root.
- Install Google Play Services on KitKat
- Change the screen resolution
- Change the amount of internal disk space
- Change the amount of memory and cpu cores available.
- Install busybox
- Flash simple scripts that don't require recent versions of cwm/twrp/other modern recovery.
----------------------------------------
Background information: The Microsoft Android "Emulator" is actually a HyperV virtual machine. When you install it, it enables the HyperV virtualization service in windows*. The effect of this is that instead of running android by emulating an arm processor, it runs android natively, with far better performance, by using Microsoft's hypervisor that's built into windows (win8+). You can work with it with Visual Studio and with Android Studio, but I don't use either much, so I can't help you with that. You can download it from Visual Studio if you want to (VS 2015 is free), or you can download a standalone version. I don't know if there's a difference between the two.
* I'm not sure if it installs the HyperV GUI as well, as I already use HyperV for other things and had it already installed. If you need to do so, you can install the GUI by going to add-remove windows features in the control panel ('appwiz.cpl' from the control panel).
----------------------------------------
Modifying the properties of the emulated system.
Configuration file location: After you create a device, the .cfg file for it will be located in %localappdata%\Microsoft\VisualStudioEmulator\Android\Containers\Local\Devices
To change the resolution: So far, I haven't identified any supported resolutions other than those listed in the device profiles list. So far, supported resolutions that I've used successfully are 480x800, 720x1080. You can edit the .cfg file for the specific device that you want to change the resolution of, and change the `device.screen.resolution=` line to any supported (see previous) resolution.
To change the size of the internal storage, follow the instructions here. You'll need an ubuntu cd; minimal install cd is fine if you have slow internet/computer or low ram.
To change the amount of ram or processors allocated to the virtual machine: Open Hyper-V manager, right-click the appropriate VM and click settings.
- Change the ram allocation by clicking Memory in the list at left. I do not know what happens if you try using Dynamic Memory; if it works, it should be more memory-efficient, but I left that alone. Now update the `device.vm.ram.size=` line in the .cfg file.
- Change the cpu allocation by clicking the Processor field. Please note that if you have hyper-threading, you should only use half your logical processors as cpus; the hyperthreaded 'cores' won't work as well (according to information online; you can check number of logical processors in windows task manager's performance tab). Now update the 'device.vm.cpu.count=' line in the .cfg file
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Info on "recovery" and "flashing" - Installing google play
So far, I have only managed to get Google Play Services working on KitKat. I can't get it to work on Lollipop or Marshmallow (and haven't tried earlier versions at all); the virtual machine does *not* have a recovery or fastboot because of the way it works, and I haven't figured out any way of installing such. Instead, there's a simple shell file called install_zip.sh. It does not work with modern flashable zips that require TWRP/CWM; it only works with the old style zip designed for a specific architecture. As such, opengapps flashable zips will not work.
To install Google Play Services on KitKat (4.4.4)
1. Inside the emulator, open the browser and go to http://www.teamandroid.com/gapps/ and download the file linked under Gapps CyanogenMod 11.
2. Open the window the the android VM from the Hyper-V Manager to get console access. If you have ADB installed locally, you can use that in the future, but getting the VM's shared IP requires terminal access anyways (run `ip addr` as root inside the emulator to get the list of IPs).
3. Run `adb shell` to get access to the root shell (yes, it's that easy).
4. Run `install_zip.sh /sdcard/Downloads/gapps-kk-20140105-signed.zip` (or whatever the name/path for the downloaded gapps file is).
5. It should complete successfully. Now type exit to exit the adb shell, and close the hyper-v console window (the android emulator will continue running).
6. Click the 'X' at the top right of the Emulator to shut down/close the VM
7. Start the emulator back up. You should now have access to Google Play Services.
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Busybox
The emulator does not come with a preinstalled copy of busybox. It does come with the android toolbox, but this has only a very minimal amount of commands in it. The instructions below are for installing stericson's busybox.
1. Get a copy of stericson's busybox from somewhere--your personal device, etc, it doesn't matter. The easiest way is to either install it on a real android device and grab it with airdroid (or other), or to use a play store scanner to get it. The file name will probably be something like stericson.busybox.apk.
2. Rename it to .zip so you can access the contents.
3. Extract the busybox-x86.png file from the 'assets' folder inside the zip, and rename it to `busybox`.
4. In the Android Emulator, click the >> button for tools, and click the sdcard header. Choose a folder (a new one on your dekstop will do) and tell it to pull the contents of the sdcard to the folder.
5. Move the busybox file into the Download folder that you just pulled from the sdcard. If you created a folder for this, you can delete it now.
6. Back in the android emulator, push the folder structure back into the sdcard; this will move the busybox onto the emulator.
7. Open the HyperV console for the emulator or open a terminal app in the android emulator (installing it is up to you)
8. Run `adb shell` to get a root prompt.
9. Run `mount -o rw,remount /system` to remount the system partition as writable
10. Run `cp /sdcard/Download/busybox /system/xbin` to copy the busybox binary over
11. Run `chmod 777 /system/xbin/busybox` to make the busybox binary executable.
12. Run `busybox --install /system/xbin` to copy the busybox binary for all the included applets. I think the -s paramter will symlink the applets to the main binary instead, but I'm not sure.
13. Type exit in the adb shell.
14. You can now run busybox commands in the terminal, and use apps that require busybox to be installed.
Now that you have busybox installed, you can use unzip, etc.
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Hacking the OS itself.
The android emulator uses a VHD file for the disks. I've mounted the vhd file inside an ubuntu server to play with, and discovered several things about the way it works. The first partition is the boot partition, it contains 3 files:
- kernel - the android/linux kernel
- ramdisk - the ramdisk for the root filesystem. gzipped cpio archive.
- cmdline - the kernel parameters(? not sure what to call this)
I've tried modifying the ramdisk to add the init files for the superuser, but this doesn't seem to work properly; when I boot up the vhd file, I can open the console with hyper-v manager (the android emulator machines show up there automatically), and when it gets to the ramdisk, it says so--then the caps/num/scroll lights start flashing and it hangs. I haven't gotten any further than that at this time.