I'm a father of three now...a new baby girl, a 7 yo boy, and an 8 yo girl going on 14. Now that my upgrade time has come for my phone i'm figuring out exactly what i want to do with my Droid Eris. I'm pretty sure i'll be running the wifi only script to turn off the cell radio, but i'm also interested in disabling the camera on it.
i'm not familiar with the interworkings of android but i was good enough to do the early days root working with adb and the sdk. of course, that was all step by step, without much understanding what every command did. i won't necessarily need a step by step for this - i'm sure i can find the commands i need, but if it's right off the top of your head i'd appreciate them.
i'm looking for which files i can either delete or rename to disable the camera(s), most likely force closing any camera app that may be opened. i'll be removing the stock app (i can search xda/wiki/google on how to simply remove an app...easy) but i need to know what files are used to access camera functions for the OS.
If the files are specific for the phone, please let me know so i don't attempt it on anything else, but if they're for the android OS that would be ideal - so i can use it on whatever device i give my kids (AndyPad, android phones, other tablets). thanks everyone in advance.
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I don't know anything about this programming. I am a complete idiot when it comes to this stuff. I rooted the phone because I wanted to be have full control over it's capabilities going forward, but I didn't realize I'd need to use these programs on my computer to do it. I thought things would be available through simple downloads.
Anyway, I've spent the last several hours attempting to become at least functional so that I could install another OS on my phone. I have no idea what rebooting in recovery or clearing caches or any of this is. I know it's probably simple, remedial stuff to practically everyone reading this but I am clueless.
I'm sure I could learn and was willing to do so. I downloaded SDK and Java update and Eclipse and painstakingly followed installation instructions several times from several sources. And I can't get the adb to function. My computer won't recognize the path. I'm pretty certain that I've installed everything completely and updated the path accurately, etc. I go through cmd, type in adb and it says it's not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file.
I've gotten to the point where I just want to set my phone back to the way it was when I bought it 2 days ago. I want to go back to being a simple lemming and just oblivious to this whole world. I don't belong over here. I'm out of my league and I know it.
Now the problem I have is that it's supposedly easy to "unroot" the phone. You just have to download 3 things and "flash" them. I don't even know what the **** that means though. And if it invloves using adb (or abd...I don't even know that), then I'm screwed.
I'm really frustrated guys. I'm tired. I should have never attempted this, but it all sounded so easy and awesome. Now I just want my normal, restricted phone back. Can anyone help me?
OK. I got the phone back to it's original state. I know some of you are probably shaking your heads at the decision, but it makes me feel a lot more comfortable.
Maybe if I could figure out how to access adb, it would be different but I just felt handcuffed without it. Well there eventually be ROMs that are more easily installed like re-installing the original was? Will there be ways to just steam it through HTC Sync?
i think one reason why u didnt manage to get adb working is because u didnt set up the environmental variables for java. Go into command prompt and type java. See what that returns.
SupremeBeaver said:
i think one reason why u didnt manage to get adb working is because u didnt set up the environmental variables for java. Go into command prompt and type java. See what that returns.
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Click to collapse
Thank you for the response. That command produced a long string of information. Is there something in that I should be looking for, or was this just a test to see if it would be recognized?
it was a test to see if java was working fine. By string of commands do u mean like this:
http://img682.imageshack.us/img682/8440/48798806.jpg
Otherwise the problem may be that you havent specified the environmental variables for the android sdk.
Right click on My Computer and go to properties, under the Advanced tab, hit the Environment Variables button, and in the dialog that comes up, double-click on Path (under System Variables). Now what u need to do is add the location of ur sdk to the end of the "Variable Value".
So if u put the adroid sdk folder in the root of ur C drive, then u would add this line
;C:\Android\tools
to the end of the Variable Value line. This depends on where u put the skd folder though. Whats important here is u dont replace whats already there! Just add the line to the end, even the ";" symbol.
Hope this helps. let me know how it goes
Thank you again for the response. Yes, that looks to be the same screen information that appears when I run java in command.
I have the SDK in a folder named AndroidSDK on the root of my C drive. I have added the line ";C:\AndroidSDK\tools" to the end of the path. One thing I just realized is that when I double click the AndroidSDK folder, the next screen contains a single folder named "android-sdk-windows". When I double click that folder I see subfolders for add-ons, platforms, tools, SDK readme, and SDK setup. I'm wondering now if I need to include that "android-sdk-windows" in the path line in order for it to find adb in the tools.
I would really like to solve this adb issue. I still want to learn enough about this stuff to root the phone again and feel comfortable working with it. I'm completely obsessed with this right now. It's driving me mad.
in that case the line you should add would be
;C:\AndroidSDK\android-sdk-windows\tools
I can't believe it was that simple!
Actually I can believe it. Thank you so much for your help. Sorry if I came off as a bit of a drama queen in the OP, but I have just spent about 6 hours messing with this if you include the rooting.
Ok. I think I'm going to give it all another shot. Thanks again. I may be back to this thread again if I end up running into another dead end though.
Glad it worked
Dont worry about it, i can understand ur frustration because this is by no means straight forward.
Hope u enjoy playing with ur soon to be rooted EVO
If you have time to answer another question, I went through the OTA Simple Root process again and everything appears to have worked. But I don't think that finishes the phone in root. I don't have a Superuser app, for instance.
Isn't there something else I need to do? (Install a custom rom maybe?)
If so, how do I accomplish it in the least technical way possible?
Im not too sure with that actually. I dont have an EVO (or any android phone for that matter). But yeah i think the superuser app should appear without flashing a custom rom.
I think you might want to create a thread in the EVO section where im sure many EVO owners will help u out with this. Or maybe a mod could move this thread?
JelloB said:
If you have time to answer another question, I went through the OTA Simple Root process again and everything appears to have worked. But I don't think that finishes the phone in root. I don't have a Superuser app, for instance.
Isn't there something else I need to do? (Install a custom rom maybe?)
If so, how do I accomplish it in the least technical way possible?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Disclaimer - I have not used the simple root method.
That being said I have helped a few people with this and it seems that the last img file that it flashes does not have super user access. You need to flash a custom ROM in order to fix that. I will post a link to the thread that I was helping in and that should answer some of your questions on how to do that.
Hope that helps
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=722194
Sent via the Sprint HTC EVO
Just wanted to update this. I finally was able to put it all together. I was previously unaware of the "extras" tab on the OTASimpleRoot program. Just didn't read the instructions in post well enough, which is the story of my life....but I digress.
Anyway, I was able to root the phone again, flash recovery and now I have even gotten to the point where I understand a little bit how to install custom roms. In fact, I just installed my first using Baked Snacks latest update. I've also downloaded ROM manager so in the future I should I have no trouble at all (even though I'm pretty comfortable doing it the "long" way now).
Thanks again to both of the guys above who took the time to read and respond to a complete newbies questions.
I now that I have successfully loaded a custom ROM onto my EVO that it is full root and I don't have to worry about that anymore. I don't have a "superuser" app that I can tell, but I do have a "dev tools" app and folders which I don't think were on the phone before.
Alright, I do have a superuser permissions app. When I click it nothing happens though. I don't know if that's normal or not.
The issue I'm having now is that when the phone was rooted it took it back to the 1.17.651.1 software version. I went through the steps in the "How to start over: Fully rooted stock 1.47..." thread but the phone doesn't appear to be reading the PC36IMG.zip file. It doesn't ask if I want to update it. I tried it a couple times and then skipped to the second file in that thread (su-2.1-e-unsecure-signed.zip) and got a message about ....something "build". Went ahead with the install but I don't see anything different. Still says I'm on software 1.17.....
Wireless tethering app doesn't work for me, which was the impetus to dig further into this....deeper down the rabbit hole.
Ok. This will be my last update but I'm pretty excited because something has happened to correct issues I was having.
I thought I would go through the root process from start to see if I could get the 1.47 software. Once I got to the second step and did the factory reset, upon reboot it took me to the recovery screen which was different and made me a little nervous. I found the cue to install BakedSnack again from the sdcard and chose that function.
This time things were different than before. For instance, upon booting the phone I got a cool screen saver with streaming, trippy colors instead of the 4G and Sprint crystaline logos. I don't remember this happening the first time I installed this ROM. Once I got into the phone I noticed some minor changes I didn't notice the first time. The music widget wasn't on the second page, nor the nascar or football crap either. I think they were there before. Then I went into apps and saw ROM manager installed and superuser and Wifi tethering. Went straight to wifi tethering and low and behold it works like a charm.
Last but least, I went to check the software and I am now running 1.47. I don't know why it's on their now. This is all still a little mysterious to me. I could swear this Baked ROM is a little different than the first time I had it on the phone. Maybe that's my imigination. Maybe the factory wipe did something. I don't know but I'm very happy now.
Congrats
SupremeBeaver said:
Congrats
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Click to collapse
Thanks again man!
What a difference 24 hours can make. At this point last night I was ready to pull my hair out in frustration. By noon today I had unrooted the phone and re-installed the most recent OTA software update and was ready to just stick with that. Now I have re-rooted, somehow managed to get the updated software back on the phone, and have installed and am running an incredibly awesome custom ROM.
I love my new phone. Thanks again to both of you guys who offered help. I think I'm going to be good from here on.
I have recently bought an Incredible S, and it is a great device, but I would like to gain root access for certain apps. The development forum is dead, I presume anyone with the knowledge and inclination as avoided this phone (and is waiting on the dual cores) so I decided to look for myself, but I am stuck. Either the people who usually discover root on these devices don't like documenting processes and methods, or I am loking in totally the wrong place. Can anyone give me pointers on where to start looking or where I can find info on where to start looking, or am I just barking up the wrong tree and sounding really thick?
Hey people,
I need to root my phone to.
I used z4mod and universal androot, both apps failed to root my phone.
So i hope someone succeed to root his or her incredible s, and post it here.
- Bert
unrevoked.com
just enable usb debugging, plug your phone into pc via usb, start unrevoked3 and wait. It will do all the work for you
There is no support for the HTC incredible S
i think there is a difrence between the HTC droid incredible and HTC incredible S,
so im not taking any risk trying to root my phone as an HTC droid incredible
vindicat said:
unrevoked.com
just enable usb debugging, plug your phone into pc via usb, start unrevoked3 and wait. It will do all the work for you
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
UnrEVOked does not support Inc S at the moment.
Sent from my HTC Incredible S using XDA Premium App
Alright, i'll try to make this simple, because i'm betting not a lot of people know what goes into rooting these devices.
Root is not like buried treasure. No X on a map. In fact, there is no map. We're not hitting up a command prompt on windows, crawling through thousands of bits to find the access codes so we can find the root the creators left for us.
Now that we know what it isn't, it's time to explain what it is.
Finding root is a lot like finding a back door... that's been painted to look like the rest of the outside wall... and all of its cracks sealed... and its doorknob non-existant. You'd have to look from the inside to know where it is, and even THEN you don't know if you can even OPEN the door from the outside.
What devs (or aspiring devs) attempt to do is look for the telltale signs that a phone software vendor has modified from the original stock AOSP. This means that the phone will be attempting to do something unique, something that vanilla android does not. TouchWiz, MotoBlur, etc are all examples of these.
Devs look through the changes, trying to find examples where vendors have hijacked root access (or system access) to perform a task. On Droid3, for example, we found a script that reinstalls stock sample games onto the phone. We attempted to shell-inject some code into a variable to install superuser into an executable directory. Unfortunately, the attempt failed.
In short, you're looking for signs that some root access is happening outside of vanilla android. After that, you need to find a way to hijack it. Checking files for executable permissions, finding out where files can be executed, etc are all examples of searching for root.
Your eventual goal will to be to get the su binary into an executable location. On the Droid3, this was /data/tmp, a temporary filesystem with executable permissions (but no write access for apps or shell.) Our goal was to use some exploit to push su into that directory and execute it. (We still have not achieved this.)
If you really want to learn the process that goes into rooting, check this thread out: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1193893
It is 60 pages of root theory where we are still [at time of post] attempting to gain root. We wade through our ideas, our attempts, our successes and our failures. (we have lots of those. )
Good luck, though i think you might be getting in over your head... I sure am already.
I am a NOOB, but I like myself just fine. The video for NOOBs is funny, but IMHO, should be a bit more serious.
I'm one of those people experiencing issues with GPS and TTFF being excessively long on the MT. Cry.
If I run MyPhoneExplorer, I can see the system file structure, and I believe I can move files to the phone. I believe I can do the same with SwiFTP.
Can one drop replacement GPS libraries for example into the SYSTEM and SYSTEM/HW sub-directories using a program like MPE, or an FTP program like SwiFTP without rooting, and would they be honored on the next reboot?
Would I be mangling some check-sum or other that determines the integrity of the system loaded?
I'm one of those users that doesn't really want to root if not necessary, but I wonder if doing some mod like the above - would doing so lay subsequent update pushes from VMUSA to waste?
Also, I'd really like if possible to flag some programs not to load, unless I explicitly ask them to load via the U.I. with intent. I suppose I'd have to root to do something like that. Perhaps with Ginger-Break? Would doing this make subsequent updates problematic?
Any information regarding my constraints and options to effect both of the above would be very appreciated. Thanks.
There are ways to mount the various partitions from a host machine (e.g. Linux) while it is in the "emergency" flash mode, which would permit what you want to do. Doing this is quite dangerous - at least as much as rooting the device and perhaps more-so.
I appreciate the response.
OK, if I were to root via Gingerbreak and install the files that way, then un-root, would my system then appear to be (to an update provided by Motorola or VMUSA) as something which couldn't be updated?
In other-words would rooting put me on a path to having to use specially modified updates?
Thanks.
Depends on what you change.
In GENERAL no, the update will come through. The major risk is that it crashes on install as some part of what you changed is a dependency but is not reloaded. This is rare, but can happen.
So.... root, install Clockwork, and make an immediate Nandroid backup BEFORE you screw with anything. That SHOULD allow you to un-hose yourself if you get in trouble.
I heard its fairly easy to customize a stock ROM with little to no coding (I don't know anything but visual basic). Even though i have heard this i have no idea on how to do it. Could someone point me to instructions or explain to me how its done? Youtube has not helped be either. The ROM would be based off of the Infuse 4G Stock (at least for my first one).
noahk11 said:
I heard its fairly easy to customize a stock ROM with little to no coding (I don't know anything but visual basic). Even though i have heard this i have no idea on how to do it. Could someone point me to instructions or explain to me how its done? Youtube has not helped be either. The ROM would be based off of the Infuse 4G Stock (at least for my first one).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
depends on what you need to do, porting from device to device may need some coding (unless it is from a galaxy s to an infuse or other similar devices where you can swap samsung libs) app editing is java and can sometimes be done with smali/baksmali or apk tool but you can still theme with nothing but an archive type program (7zip or similar) also you can move apps around or delete bloat. there are different ways to go about it certain things.
the best way i think is to setup adb with the phone functional. then you can root and adb into the phone and pull apps, theme/edit and then push the apps back to the phone. this makes it much easier to find problems and debug since ther eis no flashing and you do changes one at a time. you could also ssh into the phone over wifi.
do you just want to do this for personal use or share what you have done? cwm packages will need some scripting skills and you will possibly have to make new simlinks and fix permissions.
basically the perminant apps are all in /system/app. the framework apps are in /system/framework
/system/app/systemUI.apk is the app responsible for the notification bar and most of the other themeing is in /system/framework/framework-res.apk and /system/framework/twframework-res.apk all i can say is google around and if you see something you want to do look for a tutorial on the subject.
Dani897 said:
depends on what you need to do, porting from device to device may need some coding (unless it is from a galaxy s to an infuse or other similar devices where you can swap samsung libs) app editing is java and can sometimes be done with smali/baksmali or apk tool but you can still theme with nothing but an archive type program (7zip or similar) also you can move apps around or delete bloat. there are different ways to go about it certain things.
the best way i think is to setup adb with the phone functional. then you can root and adb into the phone and pull apps, theme/edit and then push the apps back to the phone. this makes it much easier to find problems and debug since ther eis no flashing and you do changes one at a time. you could also ssh into the phone over wifi.
do you just want to do this for personal use or share what you have done? cwm packages will need some scripting skills and you will possibly have to make new simlinks and fix permissions.
basically the perminant apps are all in /system/app. the framework apps are in /system/framework
/system/app/systemUI.apk is the app responsible for the notification bar and most of the other themeing is in /system/framework/framework-res.apk and /system/framework/twframework-res.apk all i can say is google around and if you see something you want to do look for a tutorial on the subject.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Id prefer to share what i've done. Id like to go into simple rom development.
Id like to run 2 versions of a app is this possible? Id love to do this is a unrooted scenario but if its not possible my phones can be rooted.
My second question is how easy/safe would it be to simulate a button press externally? Looking for creative ideas here I need to hit a prompt once a hour on my phone. I dont want to use internal apps because im pretty sure those will get noticed.
Thanks!
You can, if you break an application to change the name of the package, replacing all the way to him to collect and re-sign. Get a new application. Of course, there may be problems with the treatment settings, databases, etc., but if the application is very simple, you can hire.