Related
I have Astro and Linda file manager, but they won't let me access the folders on my phone. Do I not have them set correctly, or do they just not let you get into the directories on the phone? Would be easier to go poking around instead of doing lots of cd ./folder and ls to see, and so on. wish i couldadd Astro to the superuser whitelist if that is all you have to do.
Shaggy
I asked the same thing, and got flamed saying I shouldn't be allowed to have root access.
I did some research on this, because I was trying to see if there was an easy way to launch an apk as su. As far as I can tell, when launching an apk, as soon as zygote takes over, and creates the vm process it applies predefined permissions to the running process. I don't know if these permissions can be changed by the devs, but apparently the ASTRO dev didn't really want to make a root version.
I do know, however, that if the application uses console commands, that the developer can prefix commands with su to all the program to have root access from inside the app's vm.
Would also like to know how to do this- with a GUI interface file browser such as these, it would be MUCH easier to navigate and figure out where specific files are located.
I'm glad I'm not the only one that prefers a GUI over typing tons of commands on a little keyboard. Even worse trying to read that little font, plus my screen has many spider web cracks in it, making it a pain in the ass to read.
Shaggy
Shagman68 said:
I'm glad I'm not the only one that prefers a GUI over typing tons of commands on a little keyboard. Even worse trying to read that little font, plus my screen has many spider web cracks in it, making it a pain in the ass to read.
Shaggy
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There is an option to make the font size larger-- press Menu and hit Font Size, then click whatever size you want
I prefer command line over GUI in most cases, but here a file manager would make life a lot easier. The keyboard is just a pain to type .'s and /'s in. For file deletion etc a gui would be easier.
Darkrift said:
I prefer command line over GUI in most cases, but here a file manager would make life a lot easier. The keyboard is just a pain to type .'s and /'s in. For file deletion etc a gui would be easier.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yea! I love a blinking cursor, #, or $ as much as the next *nix sysadmin, but seriously, I wipe my phone quite frequently, and everytime I do, I either have to fire up adb shell (I work a lot and when I get home the last thing I want to do is sit behind a computer again) or terminal emulator (annoying with small keyboard) to delete the crap apps that come stock on the different builds...although when I get around to it I'm just going to figure out how to make my own update.zip
Hey everybody. I'm on windows and adb's shell just keeps on pissing me off. Mainly, how pressing tab actually inserts a tab rather than tab completion . I'd really like to do something about this.
Here's a list of the things i've tried to get rid of this super-annoying behaviour.
-rolled a cross-compiler toolchain (glibc-based) for my phone (HTC Magic) and cross-compiled bash (in a vm). I actually made this work even with dynamic linking, and can start bash from within an instance of "adb shell". Unfortunatly, this doesn't change the tab behaviour, which appears to be baked into adb rather than a problem with the default shell.
-I thought i'd try something fancy by doing...
adb shell mkfifo /fifo
adb shell "bash > /fifo < fifo 2> /fifo"
adb forward tcp:9001 dev:/fifo
and starting putty in raw mode, connecting to localhost:9001. Unfortunatly, all is what happens is i get an echo of what i type and if i press enter a few times putty spits out ": command not found". I can't see why this shouldn't work but I suspect i'm Doing It Wrong.
-Searching the forum revealed puttycyg, which is actually really handy but unfortunatly suffers from the same tab completion problem as using adb shell in cmd.exe
How do you guys do it? Am I onto something with the adb forward thing? If so, how do I make that work?
I have also compiled bash but I have tab completion though adb. I do however use Linux as my desktop OS and am connecting through Konsole. So you could just try to install KDE for Windows. I know that I've looked for good terminal applications for windows but found none. They're all **** compared to what's available on nix.
This is my simple bashrc:
Code:
# If interactive do nothing.
[ -z "$PS1" ] && return
export HOME="/sdcard/"
PS1='[email protected]\h:\w\$ '
Also it's full of aliases for busybox. By replacing built in ls and similar you even get nice colors But still no line editing for some reason. I figure I might just need a proper libreadline or similar for that.
If anybody's interested in how I got this working, i cross-compiled socat for the droid. Required configuring with --disable-termios and manually editing config.h to set the #define for CRDLY_SHIFT and a couple other *_SHIFT macros to some values i found in Config/linux-2.6.24.h (or something similar, posting from memory here)
Once socat is on the phone, I made it pipe data from a bash shell to a unix socket it is listening on:
socat unix-listen:/dev/adbsock,fork exec:"/bin/bash -li",pty,stderr,setsid,sigint
(command shamelessly copied from http://superuser.com/questions/123790/socat-and-rich-terminals-with-ctrlc-ctrlz-ctrld-propagation ).
Then, on the pc i run adb forward tcp:9001 localfilesystem:/tmp/adbsock
And if i connect putty to localhost:9001 in raw mode (disabling line editing and local echo) I get a fairly complete bash shell that you can not only use tab completion on but even vi works
Again, posting from memory here so if anyone wants to try this and is running into problems i can dig it up from my ~/.bash_history.
Any chance you can post your socat port?
The tab completion thing is driving me insane! I don't understand why the ADB shell in *nix is proper, but the windows version sucks so much hairy donkey balls.
I've been using Ansicon so I at least get color in my shell, but ADB still mangles tab, and I don't even want to talk about what it does to Nano. Ugh!
Oh wow, this takes me back. I don't even have my android phone anymore (cancelled the contract due to terribly crap network service, and (unfortunately) the iPhone was the best phone in its price range from my new carrier).
So I don't have any files to give to you...
But, from what I can remember, to make it work, I built a cross binutils and gcc loosely following the instructions from the LFS book, compiled glibc + a few other libs socat wanted with it, and then socat itself, and then bash. I then copied the cross libc.so.6, ld-linux.so.2 (or whatever it's called on ARM) and all the libs socat wanted to /lib on the phone, and the socat and bash binaries to /bin. It's convenient that android keeps its important stuff in /system because it means you can avoid screwing around with your toolchain to make it look for a dynamic linker in some location other than /lib.
From memory socat was the only thing I had problems compiling, and thankfully I've already posted roughly what i had to do to it to make it build (because there's no way I remember lol)
Sorry I can't be more helpful!
So I've really grown to like having my local SMB shares from my media server mounted to my Xoom so that I can stream video and/or music or whatever on the fly. I don't like the mountpoints getting all messed up when I leave the network though, and I had less than stellar experiences with both Mount Manager and CIFSManager.
CIFSManager worked, but didn't integrate with Tasker, so I couldn't automate it. Mount Manager (the paid version anyway) came with a Tasker plugin, but I don't think it was fully compatible with the Honeycomb OS and I had a lot of issues with it (called the developer and left a message a few hours after buying it, hopefully I can get a refund for my $2.99).
Then I found the (free!) Locale Execute plugin and decided to just script the behavior I wanted myself. If you have Tasker and local SMB shares as well this could be a good solution for you. Just install the Locale Execute plugin from the market and follow these instructions. I'll post them here because I can't post to the dev section yet, and I'm not really sure if this is dev worthy anyway.
First I setup a profile for my home WiFi network (WiFi Connected > SSID [my home WiFi SSID]. Then I added an Enter action with the Execute plugin:
Code:
@!sh /[path]/[to]/[chk_and_mnt_script]/cifs_chk_and_mnt.sh
But I needed to make sure the mount points are cleaned if I disconnect for any reason so I added an Exit action with the Execute plugin as well:
Code:
@!sh /[path]/[to]/[umnt_script]/cifs_umount.sh
In Execute the "@" symbol is used to keep the program from echoing commands to "toasts" (the little black notification boxes you get sometimes, like when an app is "granted SuperUser permissions") and the "!" symbol is used to grant the line of Execute code root access.
I removed the toasts but I still wanted some notification as to what was going on and a quick google revealed this xda post: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=773232
In that post I found a little .apk that would allow me to call a toast from a bash script. I've attached it to this post.
In the mount script I run a little check to find out if the "cifs.ko" kernel module is already loaded. If it is I skip that block, but if not I go ahead and load it. This way I always know that the kernel module is available before I try to mount the SMB shares.
Here's the Enter bash script I wrote called "cifs_chk_and_mnt.sh":
Code:
#!/bin/bash
lsmod | grep -q 'cifs' #check if cifs module is loaded
if [[ $? -eq 1 ]] #if not
then
am start -a android.intent.action.MAIN -e message 'cifs.ko kernel module not yet loaded. Loading now...' -n com.rja.utility/.ShowToast #displays toast
insmod /system/lib/modules/cifs.ko #loads kernel module
fi
am start -a android.intent.action.MAIN -e message 'Mounting local SMB network shares...' -n com.rja.utility/.ShowToast #displays toast
mount -o username=[windows login],password=[your password] -t cifs //[host ip]/[share] /[path]/[to]/[mount]/[point] #actually mounts share
#replace "[]" info with your own with NO "[]" and copy and paste line for as many shares as you want to mount
And here's the Exit script called "cifs_umount.sh":
Code:
#!/bin/bash
am start -a android.intent.action.MAIN -e message 'Home network lost. Clearing local SMB share mount points...' -n com.rja.utility/.ShowToast #displays toast
umount /[path]/[to]/[mount]/[point]
#replace "[]" info with your own with NO "[]" and copy and paste line for as many shares as you have mounted in the Enter script
Now, like I said, I used the linked (and attached) .apk to display toasts from the BASH scripts, but if you don't want it or care enough to use it then feel free to delete the toast lines or throw a "#" in front of them. If you do want the toasts displayed then you'll have to download it and install it. It won't show in your app drawer.
Anyway, here are the files (I had to add a ".txt" extension to the .sh files to comply with xda's attachment rules, but you can just rename them):
Thanks for this, looks great! I literally just paid for one of the premium smb apps only to find it didn't do quite what I wanted. I'm sure this will be what I'm looking for, cheers.
Edit:
Something for users to note: The umount script wasn't working for me, after some investigation it turns out that though when mounting, '/sdcard/dir' is acceptable, though the mount command actually considers my sdcard to actually be at '/mnt/sdcard' , so *that* was the dir I had to use when unmounting afterwards. This may be true for others too. I am using CM7 on a Desire.
Looking into this, I found that on my CM7 Desire, mounting the shares worked even if "lsmod | grep cifs" returns nothing, and the file is not in the place mentioned in your script either. To streamline the whole process, I just removed all the complicated stuff from the script and ran the mount command directly, saving time. Just a heads up for others, try it and see if it works for you.
Thanks so much for this!
Unfortunately, I have a couple of problems... When the share mounts, it is not in utf-8 format, so folders with odd characters do not show, even though I have that preference set in Mount Manager!
In addition, the unmount script does not work for some reason. When disabling wifi, I recieve a toast that Tasker got the message and executed my exit task, but there is no toast for the unmount script. I've triple checked for grammatical or directory errors, but there are none. Any idea why the unmount script isn't working?
cavemandaveman said:
Thanks so much for this!
Unfortunately, I have a couple of problems... When the share mounts, it is not in utf-8 format, so folders with odd characters do not show, even though I have that preference set in Mount Manager!
In addition, the unmount script does not work for some reason. When disabling wifi, I recieve a toast that Tasker got the message and executed my exit task, but there is no toast for the unmount script. I've triple checked for grammatical or directory errors, but there are none. Any idea why the unmount script isn't working?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
To be honest, I completely forgot I ever wrote this. Still, the unmount issue could be due to your busybox version. Have you tried executing the relevant commands at a root enabled terminal? Do they work there?
Moreover, you should understand that I apparently wrote this to be completely independent of "Mount Manager" or any related app and these scripts are dependent only on: busybox, Tasker, and the Execute plugin.
-Mike
mikeserv said:
To be honest, I completely forgot I ever wrote this. Still, the unmount issue could be due to your busybox version. Have you tried executing the relevant commands at a root enabled terminal? Do they work there?
Moreover, you should understand that I apparently wrote this to be completely independent of "Mount Manager" or any related app and these scripts are dependent only on: busybox, Tasker, and the Execute plugin.
-Mike
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tried executing from terminal and the mount script works fine, but the unmount does not work. It gives me a "no closing quote" error. I'm pretty noobish when it comes to scripts, but it doesn't look like there are errors in the script itself...
Also, if it is independent of Mount Manager, is there a way to include utf-8 formatting in the script?
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus
mikeserv said:
So I've really grown to like having my local SMB shares from my media server mounted to my Xoom so that I can stream video and/or music or whatever on the fly. I don't like the mountpoints getting all messed up when I leave the network though, and I had less than stellar experiences with both Mount Manager and CIFSManager.
CIFSManager worked, but didn't integrate with Tasker, so I couldn't automate it. Mount Manager (the paid version anyway) came with a Tasker plugin, but I don't think it was fully compatible with the Honeycomb OS and I had a lot of issues with it (called the developer and left a message a few hours after buying it, hopefully I can get a refund for my $2.99).
Then I found the (free!) Locale Execute plugin and decided to just script the behavior I wanted myself. If you have Tasker and local SMB shares as well this could be a good solution for you. Just install the Locale Execute plugin from the market and follow these instructions. I'll post them here because I can't post to the dev section yet, and I'm not really sure if this is dev worthy anyway.
snip...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I dont care this post is 5 years old, i dont care that i'm bumping this thread...this little gold brick of information was FINALLY what i needed to figure out how to mount cifs without that "never-gonna-be-updated-ever-ever-again-cifsmanager" apk. I just threw the same basic code into tasker and finally got a mount. thank you! if i was more secure in my manhood, i just might embarrass myself.
the real reason for the bump, instead of mere word wasting, is to help anyone anyone searching for the cifs manager apk, or getting the error "no such device" when trying to mount. The issue is connected to the both the "mount name space separation" in SUPERSU, the old android sdcard permissions and who knows what else.
heres' the code I put into tasker:
su --mount-master -c busybox mount -o username=[USERNAME],password=[PASSWORD],rw,file_mode=0777,dir_mode=0777,iocharset=utf8,context=ubject_r:rootfs:s0 -t cifs //192.168.xxx.xxx/cifsync /sdcard/cifsync
no brackets of course.
that popped it right online, no issues but my kernel provides cifs.io support through synapse settings app. so it was easy to load the module at startup
loogielv said:
I dont care this post is 5 years old, i dont care that i'm bumping this thread...this little gold brick of information was FINALLY what i needed to figure out how to mount cifs without that "never-gonna-be-updated-ever-ever-again-cifsmanager" apk. I just threw the same basic code into tasker and finally got a mount. thank you! if i was more secure in my manhood, i just might embarrass myself.
the real reason for the bump, instead of mere word wasting, is to help anyone anyone searching for the cifs manager apk, or getting the error "no such device" when trying to mount. The issue is connected to the both the "mount name space separation" in SUPERSU, the old android sdcard permissions and who knows what else.
heres' the code I put into tasker:
su --mount-master -c busybox mount -o username=[USERNAME],password=[PASSWORD],rw,file_mode=0777,dir_mode=0777,iocharset=utf8,context=ubject_r:rootfs:s0 -t cifs //192.168.xxx.xxx/cifsync /sdcard/cifsync
no brackets of course.
that popped it right online, no issues but my kernel provides cifs.io support through synapse settings app. so it was easy to load the module at startup
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
in code format so there will be no syntax issues -
Code:
su --mount-master -c busybox mount -o username=[USERNAME],password=[PASSWORD],rw,file_mode=0777,dir_mode=0777,iocharset=utf8,context=u:object_r:rootfs:s0 -t cifs //192.168.xxx.xxx/cifsync /sdcard/cifsync
So, looks like we have Carrier IQ on our phones, thanks to AT&T. Any luck on getting a 3rd party ROM on here yet? Any estimates as to when?
Can you give us more information? like how you found it on the phone, what steps did you take?
With more info, those of us in the know can figure out how to disable it, or remove it, without having to resort to waiting for a rom.
I have been looking for it for quite some time without much luck.
It's the device health app.it calls the ciq agent . Easily frozen.
Sent from my MB865
mtnlion said:
It's the device health app.it calls the ciq agent . Easily frozen.
Sent from my MB865
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, I will see what else I can come up with for the ciq agent, maybe a way I can fake it out on the *NIX side of the house.
Yep first thing I went looking for after I got root.
Bloat freezer. It's free, finds it fast. When you freeze device health it doesn't want to close and keeps force closing, just reboot, it will be frozen and not running.
Douchewithaphone said:
Bloat freezer. It's free, finds it fast. When you freeze device health it doesn't want to close and keeps force closing, just reboot, it will be frozen and not running.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Must be rooted.
Sent from my mAtrix2!!
Well, I have found a way from the UNIX end to stop this thing in it's tracks, but it is not pretty for those unfamiliar with command line....
What we have to do is uncompress the kernel image in the boot.img remove the sys.DeviceHealth from the init.rc file there, then compress the kernel back up, all using cpio.... now to see if I can possibly make it work, and not brick any phones in the process, maybe I can throw a quick apk together next week.
I have tried the bloat freezer and the android assistant and I can still find the sys.DeviceHealth running on the UNIX side with the ps command, so this is a nasty one.
I will keep you guys posted, If I can find a better way.
Here is the link I saw, and how I figured out where sys.DeviceHealth is starting from.
For those interested ONLY. PLEASE do not try this yet, give me some more time to play with this in an emulator and see what I can come up with.
I am just sharing information at this time. BTW Zygote is the process that is calling the sys.DeviceHealth on the Atrix 2.
To see this Do the following from the terminal emulator app on your phone or though adb shell.
ps | grep -i Heal
ps | grep -i zygote
If you notice on the sys.DeviceHealth process that the second number is the same number as the first number of the zygote process.... What that means is that the zygote process starts the sys.DeviceHealth process. The first number is process ID (the processes "adress" so to speak), and the second number is the Parent process ID (The process that started the next one).
http://vinnysoft.blogspot.com/2009/12/zygote-system-process.html
jimbridgman said:
Here is the link I saw, and how I figured out where sys.DeviceHealth is starting from.
For those interested ONLY. PLEASE do not try this yet, give me some more time to play with this in an emulator and see what I can come up with.
I am just sharing information at this time. BTW Zygote is the process that is calling the sys.DeviceHealth on the Atrix 2.
To see this Do the following from the terminal emulator app on your phone or though adb shell.
ps | grep -i Heal
ps | grep -i zygote
If you notice on the sys.DeviceHealth process that the second number is the same number as the first number of the zygote process.... What that means is that the zygote process starts the sys.DeviceHealth process. The first number is process ID (the processes "adress" so to speak), and the second number is the Parent process ID (The process that started the next one).
http://vinnysoft.blogspot.com/2009/12/zygote-system-process.html
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
zygote appears to be a process respawner (watchdog) of some type. The trick is to find out where its config lies and tweak that to prevent the launching of sys.DeviceHealth.
I've just got the busybox installed that came with TiBackup and the shell tools are sorely limited (no grep for eg.). The shell itself is also pretty limited (no pipe??? WTF?). I had a version of bash on my atrix4g, and I'm wondering if you know of a reliable source for bash and shell tools for the atrix2?
A lil info on what AT&T says and how it uses Carrier IQ and some of the devices it is on can be read here http://m.androidcentral.com/atts-us...its-own-analytics-app-not-just-embedded-phone
razholio said:
zygote appears to be a process respawner (watchdog) of some type. The trick is to find out where its config lies and tweak that to prevent the launching of sys.DeviceHealth.
I've just got the busybox installed that came with TiBackup and the shell tools are sorely limited (no grep for eg.). The shell itself is also pretty limited (no pipe??? WTF?). I had a version of bash on my atrix4g, and I'm wondering if you know of a reliable source for bash and shell tools for the atrix2?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes that is exactly what zygote is. You would disable the sys.DeviceHealth in the EXACT way it says in the in link I posted, but you have to uncompress the kernel image, and extract the init.rc in there, then edit it to not include the sys.DeviceHealth, then re-compress it with cpio. This is just for information right now, so that later on when the ROM developers get started, they can use this info for their ROMs. I am testing this using a couple Android emulators to see what I can do with this.
As for a reliable busybox, I like the version from JRummy16 in the market, go grab that an install the latest version of busybox from his installer you downloaded (I think it is 1.19.3 or something similar).
also go get the hackers keyboard in the market, it helps a lot if you EVER use the terminal app ON the phone, heck I like for text and typing as well.
Jim: I'm assuming you mean the initrd image and not the kernel, or is that all wrapped up into one in android? the initrd is an odd place for the system's watchdog config. I suppose putting it in the kernel image prevents disabling it because presumably we don't have the key to sign the new image...
that's a new version of busybox, but I'm more interested in one with all of the options compiled in. What I have is pretty bare-bones... Does his busybox have grep at least? what do you do for a decent shell?
razholio said:
Jim: I'm assuming you mean the initrd image and not the kernel, or is that all wrapped up into one in android? the initrd is an odd place for the system's watchdog config. I suppose putting it in the kernel image prevents disabling it because presumably we don't have the key to sign the new image...
that's a new version of busybox, but I'm more interested in one with all of the options compiled in. What I have is pretty bare-bones... Does his busybox have grep at least? what do you do for a decent shell?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes in the initrd image the kernel is packed in there, as well as the init.rc file on Android, as well the filesystem subset, etc.
The init.rc file in / on the phone is NOT the one the kernel itself executes, take a look at that link I posted, Here is the excerpt we are interested in, I am pretty sure that the sys.DeviceHealth is in the exact same place:
I want to get a bit more control of what things are starting up when. To do this I need to modify the init.rc file. To do this I first extracted the the ramdisk to the fileystem so that I can modify it (gnucpio -iz -F ramdisk.img).
After this I simply commented out the line from init.rc. Then we can recreate it: (gnucpio -i -t -F ../ramdisk.img | gnucpio -o -H newc -O ../rootfs.img).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes both the stericson and JRummy16 busybox have most every command in the busybox you really need, oh and they create links in /system/bin for you, so that you can run commands without needing to always type busybox in front of the command.
As far as shells, I am a bourne or korn guy, so I just use the default /system/bin/sh, since I am closely intimate with bourne, being the UNIX Engineer that I am, and handling anything at the lowest level of the OS still requires bourne. But I love to program in korn (ksh), but I have not found any android shells that are useable beyond the basics, since we really are not going to spend much time there, it does not matter much. I would get aquainted the bourne, that android uses, since android seems be using the old school UNIX style bourne, more and more, yes there is some bourne again in there too.
P.S. pipe is in the /system/bin/sh, just make sure you source the /osh/apath.sh file, to get the /system/bin and /system/xbin in the shell...
The hackers keyboard has things like the arrow keys so that you can command recall, and other helpful things.
If you really need to run something, from the shell, just make sure put sh in front of it, or it won't run in a shell, one of the oddities about Android.
I have tested the method I mentioned before, and uncompressing the ramdisk that holds the kernel, and removing the sys.DeviceHealth from the init,rc, and it does work, after packaging it back up with CPIO. I tested this on an older phone that does not have a locked bootloader.
I am afraid to test it on the Atrix 2 since we still do not have a true way to get back after a soft brick at that low level.
Given the fact that this was another style of phone, and an unlocked bootloader, and the fact that the process name is a little different, I am still confident we can do something similar for our phone.
If you follow the directions on my post, you'll find it much easier to disable the Carrier IQ.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/show...6#post20281786
mrpoet said:
If you follow the directions on my post, you'll find it much easier to disable the Carrier IQ.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/show...6#post20281786
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
^^^^^^^^^^^Page not found^^^^^^^^^^^
kirkgbr said:
^^^^^^^^^^^Page not found^^^^^^^^^^^
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try this Link. I am not sure if it will do the job for us or not, because we don't have the same Apps installed as the Epic 4g that this original post was copied from.
Here is the thread, mrpoet created and pointed to:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1390874
Here is the original one, that he does link to in his references:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1373394
I am going to see if it works.
----Edit---
I just gave this a try and all the commands ran successfully, but sys.DeviceHealth is still running after following the above post.
JRW 28 said:
A lil info on what AT&T says and how it uses Carrier IQ and some of the devices it is on can be read here http://m.androidcentral.com/atts-us...its-own-analytics-app-not-just-embedded-phone
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just to let everyone know, the information contained in the link that JRW 28 posted, is an accurate statement from AT&T.
I have inside information that, that is BS. There are 100's of Terrabytes of Disk Storage just for this purpose.
They're a pack of bastards.
Shell script to disable read receipts for all your incoming Whatsapp messages
Even "better": Others won't see whether you've already read their message(s) or not. However, you will still be able to see the read receipts of others!
Code:
################################################################################
#
# Shell script to disable read receipts for all incoming Whatsapp messages.
#
# [ ANDROID AND ROOT ONLY ! ]
#
# Author: Stephan Schmitz <[email protected]>
# Source: https://gist.github.com/eyecatchup/9af90363732801b131bf
# Last Updated: 09. Nov 2014
#
# ABOUT
#
# You don't like that everyone in your Whatsapp contact list is now able to see
# whether you've already read their latest message(s) or not? Then feel free to
# use the following "work-around" that I found to disable sending read receipts
# globally. Once patched, whenever you get new messages, the senders will never
# see the 2 check marks in blue. They'll just stay gray, just like it was until
# recently. Well, almost. Because you'll still be able to see whether your chat
# partners have already read the messages you sent to them. ;)
#
# DESCRIPTION
#
# In early Nov. 2014, Whatsapp added a new "feature" - read receipts. It means,
# your chat partners will get a visual feedback (2 blue check marks) as soon as
# you've read their message(s).
#
# Unfortunately, Whatsapp's dev team forgot to implement a corresponding privacy
# setting for users to be able to turn off this feature. However, fortunately, I
# found it was fairly simple to disable the feature, since it is set in a public
# XML file in Whatsapp's app data directory.
#
# This script shall serve as a convenient wrapper for those Android users who do
# not live in userland - as well as for the lazy ones.
#
# PRE-REQUIREMENT
#
# Basically, all it needs is a working `sed` commandline utily in path.
# If you should not have "Busybox" installed yet, choose one of the available
# "Busybox" installer apps from Google Play Store and let it install busybox.
#
# USAGE
#
# - Save this script to your phone's sdcard as disable_whatsapp_read_receipts.sh
# - Open a terminal session on your device
# E.g. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=jackpal.androidterm
# - In the console, login as root (type su, hit enter) and type:
# sh /sdcard/disable_whatsapp_read_receipts.sh
# (adjust the path, if required, to fit your's!)
# - Hit the enter button. Done. (Whatsapp will restart afterwards)
#
# If you get any error message a) make sure the /data partition is mounted /w rw
# permissions and b), if the permission for restarting WA is denied, 1st try to
# uncomment the last line of this script (append hash char "#" (without quotes))
# and run the again. Otherwise, consult me for help here:
# http://forum.xda-developers.com/android/development/script-disable-whatsapp-read-receipts-t2933467
#
# IMPORTANT NOTE
#
# The last successful test for this was run at 09. Nov. 2014 and on the Whatsapp
# Android version 2.11.399 and 2.11.432 only. Even though it should work for all
# Android versions, it was not tested. Also, Whatsapp might change their current
# implementation any time soon. So this work-around might stop working any time
# soon too. Keep that in mind!
#
################################################################################
Download
NOTE: This script requires the "sed" command line utily (ie "busybox") installed on the system, which pre-requires a rooted device!
NOTE: The gist requires an update, which I'll post tomorrow. For further details and a manual workaround see my post here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=56640205&postcount=9
External link to gist.github.com (see the inline comments for further instructions): http://goo.gl/EiOvO0
Download, run, done. Enjoy. Whatever.
PS: For those who understand German, here're some screenshots of testing this " hack". As you can see, my chat partners can't see the read status. http://imgur.com/a/kzQs3
Nice trick!
However, I've noticed that the preferences .XML files are reset to the original values once the application relaunches. So, basically, the changes do not stick.
Any workaround on this?
smartxdev said:
Nice trick!
However, I've noticed that the preferences .XML files are reset to the original values once the application relaunches. So, basically, the changes do not stick.
Any workaround on this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's kind of odd, since the script explictly restarts the Whatsapp package *after* applying the changes to the prefs xml. Which then, in turn, should result in no result at all (assuming a restart rewrites the xml), right!? But it does work. Now, the first question would be how you define restart (activity (re)launch, package force && start)?
Update: Just checked it and you're right. If I use the -S option on the am start call (to force stop Whatsapp before (re)starting the activity), running script has no effect at all - since the XML is being recreated. And that also means, that the change will gets lost with every device reboot.
The easiest solution I see here, to have a "permanent" effect, to wrap the script in a plain simple app and attach it an onboot service. (Also, looking at #4, some further checks should be added.) If Whatsapp will leave this current implementation of defining whether to send read receipts or not, I'll invest the time into an app version, I think. (Just don't want to have too much hustle with it. So want to wait whether it's worth to spend more time on this.) Thoughts?
hi, i have this problem:
{
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"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
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}
can you fix it?
Dj Mauro said:
hi, i have this problem:
can you fix it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had permission error too.
In the terminal, try to first run "su" command (without the quotation marks), it will obtain root permissions for the terminal.
Then run the actual command. That solved the permission error for me.
Bexton said:
That's kind of odd, since the script explictly restarts the Whatsapp package *after* applying the changes to the prefs xml. Which then, in turn, should result in no result at all (assuming a restart rewrites the xml), right!? But it does work. Now, the first question would be how you define restart (activity (re)launch, package force && start)?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually it never worked for me (I mean, script ran successfully, but i have no success in disabling the "read recipient" when i tested it).
Then, I tried to do it manually:
- make a backup copy of the target file (/data/data/com.whatsapp/shared_prefs/com.whatsapp_preferences.xml)
- and then set: "read_receipts" to value="0" in the original file
- save it
- and when i open whatsapp app again, the XML file is restored to the older values, and the "backup" copy gets erased.
And for the "restart" question, i tried the following:
1 - swipe the app away from the recents, make XML modifications, and relaunch
2 - kill the app, make XML modifications, and run it again
I also tried to set XML file permissions to read-only, but it still was replaced by original config. once i opened the app.
-----
I was thinking about another workaround:
Since the read receipt (and delivery too) is usually done by transmitting a small message by the application, back to the sender, once the conversation window is opened.
It may be possible to just block this outgoing communication on your side by XPrivacy.
But, i have yet to hunt down the specific permission/address to block, without crippling the app..
Dj Mauro said:
hi, i have this problem:
snip
can you fix it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As a quick fix, this should work for you:
1.) Add the following line above the line with the sed command:
Code:
mount -o rw,remount /data
2.) Change the last line of the script to the following (if it still compains replace the user id value in the command with that from the error message. and if it still complains, it might even work when you just comment out the line):
Code:
echo `am start --user -2 -n com.whatsapp/com.whatsapp.Conversation`
3.) Back in the console again, login as root (su, enter) and run the script.
Let me know if it worked.
As said in my update to post #3, I'll probably add some automatisms for such issues soon.
Bexton Tnx !
how about an xposed module?
smartxdev said:
I had permission error too.
In the terminal, try to first run "su" command (without the quotation marks), it will obtain root permissions for the terminal.
Then run the actual command. That solved the permission error for me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, recognized already that I completely forgot to mention that at all (to run the script as root). I updated the inline instructions accordingly.
smartxdev said:
Actually it never worked for me (I mean, script ran successfully, but i have no success in disabling the "read recipient" when i tested it).
Then, I tried to do it manually:
- make a backup copy of the target file (/data/data/com.whatsapp/shared_prefs/com.whatsapp_preferences.xml)
- and then set: "read_receipts" to value="0" in the original file
- save it
- and when i open whatsapp app again, the XML file is restored to the older values, and the "backup" copy gets erased.
And for the "restart" question, i tried the following:
1 - swipe the app away from the recents, make XML modifications, and relaunch
2 - kill the app, make XML modifications, and run it again
I also tried to set XML file permissions to read-only, but it still was replaced by original config. once i opened the app.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sheesh. Okay, I think I got what's wrong here.
As far as I understood, you didn't even got to the point where the file
Code:
/data/data/com.whatsapp/shared_prefs/com.whatsapp_preferences.xml
stored the modified value, correct?
When I was looking at your manual procedure I recognized a small but probably crucial difference! Let's have a look at it. My initial, manual approach was:
# Login as root
Code:
[email protected]> [B]adb shell[/B]
[email protected]:/ $ [B]su[/B]
# Copy the original prefs xml file to /sdcard/.
# NOTE: We use cp as root user, but with the --preserve switch to copy a file owned by Whatapp's OS user.
Code:
[email protected]:/ # [B]cp -p /data/data/com.whatsapp/shared_prefs/com.whatsapp_preferences.xml /sdcard/[/B]
# So, at this point, the copied file /sdcard/com.whatsapp_preferences.xml is still owned by Whatapp's OS user.
# Now, my last 2 steps were to modify the read-receipts settings value in /sdcard/com.whatsapp_preferences.xml and copy back the modified file to its original location, which I did as follows:
Code:
[email protected]:/ # [B]sed -i'.bak' 's/^.*\bread_receipts\b.*$/ <long name="read_receipts" value="0" \/>/g' /sdcard/com.whatsapp_preferences.xml[/B]
[email protected]:/ # [B]cp -p /sdcard/com.whatsapp_preferences.xml /data/data/com.whatsapp/shared_prefs/[/B]
So all together, this was:
Code:
[email protected]> [B]adb shell[/B]
[email protected]:/ $ [B]su[/B]
[email protected]:/ # [B]cp -p /data/data/com.whatsapp/shared_prefs/com.whatsapp_preferences.xml /sdcard/[/B]
[email protected]:/ # [B]sed -i'.bak' 's/^.*\bread_receipts\b.*$/ <long name="read_receipts" value="0" \/>/g' /sdcard/com.whatsapp_preferences.xml[/B]
[email protected]:/ # [B]cp -fp /sdcard/com.whatsapp_preferences.xml /data/data/com.whatsapp/shared_prefs/[/B]
So what happened with the last 2 commands that made it work for me, but breaks in the script version?
The core problem here is, as I just learned, that GNU sed's -i extension does not actually edit files in place (--in-place is a misnomer, in my opinion); it creates a temp file, deletes the original file, then renames the temp to the name of the original. The result is a new file - much possibly with a different owner.
So in my manual procedure, the result of the sed command worked fine except for the fact that it changed ownership on all the files it went through. The only problem is that these files (or at least the backup file) were owned by the root user - the user I run the command as. However, then I used the -f switch (to force overwrite) and the -p switch (to preserve permission, ownership and timestamps) to copy back the prefs file from /sdcard/ back to its original location in the Whatsapp data folder. That means, as a result, in the Whatsapp data folder there was a) no new file from another user (the backup file) and b) the modified prefs xml file still had its original ownership information. Basically, this kind of "fixed" sed's -i mode behaviour on the prefs file plus didn't created a new file in Whatsapp's data folder.
The last step to solve the puzzle is fairly simple. I just tried the procedure manually - as defined upthread - with all my friends' phones. Thus, I didn't noticed the sed behaviour. Plus, the friend Iinitially wrote the script for didn't told me that it wasn't working for him.
Anyway. Let's finally come to how to fix.
A quick look into the sed manual unveils that -c switch should do the trick:
Code:
-c, --copy
use copy instead of rename when shuffling files in -i mode
(avoids change of input file ownership)
Unfortunately, this switch is not enabled in all the busybox sed's for Android. Also, this would still leave us with a new file in Whatsapp's data directory. Even if all ownership information of existing files can be preserved, we should also not create any files in the folder that are not known to the Whatsapp app.
So basically my manual approach is the way to go:
a) Save the backup of the original prefs file somewhere on /sdcard/
b) Preserve ownership and permissions for /data/data/com.whatsapp/shared_prefs/com.whatsapp_preferences.xml
NOTE: Even if you got the value in the prefs xml saved to "0" and with no changes to ownership and permissions, you still need to restart any running Whatsapp process. Otherwise the change will have no effect! And, rebooting the device, resets the prefs xml file!
I'll post an updated version later. Until then, probably the easiest way to test this, is the manual way using a text editor app on your device.
- Open any text editor app with root capabilities (I used https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.maskyn.fileeditor )
- From the menu choose "Open file", navigate to /data/data/com.whatsapp/shared_prefs/ and open the file com.whatsapp_preferences.xml
- Find the line that reads <long name="read_receipts" value="SOMENUMBER" /> (SOMENUMBER is a placeholder, of course)
- Replace SOMENUMBER with 0 (zero), so the line reads <long name="read_receipts" value="0" />
- Save the file
- Now, close Whatsapp from the recent apps view and restart it.
- You can verify the change by running the following command (as root) from a terminal on your phone:
Code:
cat /data/data/com.whatsapp/shared_prefs/com.whatsapp_preferences.xml |grep read
- You can verify the ownership and permissions by running the following command (as root) from a terminal on your phone:
Code:
ls -l /data/data/com.whatsapp/shared_prefs/com.whatsapp_preferences.xml
smartxdev said:
I was thinking about another workaround:
Since the read receipt (and delivery too) is usually done by transmitting a small message by the application, back to the sender, once the conversation window is opened.
It may be possible to just block this outgoing communication on your side by XPrivacy.
But, i have yet to hunt down the specific permission/address to block, without crippling the app..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sure, feel free to share any suggestions!
Ather said:
how about an xposed module?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I guess that'd be possible too. Just that I never looked into it yet.
Thanks, @Bexton for your detailed explanation.
Manual editing by Turbo Editor did the work for me.
I tested it, and the blue check marks were indeed blocked.
And btw, Turbo Editor has a nice "recent files" list on the startup, so reediting of the parameter on restart should be simple and easy.
Then, i did Restart (full restart to the device), and.... ...it still holds!
The parameter in the XML is unchanged and read notifications are still blocked
So, it made me wonder, why it didn't work for me before? I used ES Text Editor to edit the XML, it was fine, but then i made a backup copy somewhere inside the /data/data/com.whatsapp/ folder. And I think that "foreign" file caused full rewrite of the xml files by the app.
I hope it may hold permanently, but, we'll see..
Ahoy everyone!
We're 2 students from the University of Milan who created a repository [https://github.com/phosphore/whatsapp-blue/wiki]
for an Android app with the aim of getting rid of those blue ticks. We're currently
considering and testing out all the possible solutions including the modification
of com.whatsapp_preferences.xml (as found by @Bexton) or the filtering of the TCP
packet responsible for the read receipt.
Although using Bexton's method greatly simplifies the solution, it is just a
temporary workaround before Whatsapp fixes it.
Having a proxy filtering the requests should be a permanent solution. We are
reverse engineering FunXMPP (WA proprietary protocol) to find that particular request.
We're open to contribution!
smartxdev said:
So, it made me wonder, why it didn't work for me before? I used ES Text Editor to edit the XML, it was fine, but then i made a backup copy somewhere inside the /data/data/com.whatsapp/ folder. And I think that "foreign" file caused full rewrite of the xml files by the app.
I hope it may hold permanently, but, we'll see..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Some editors use a similar internal workflow as GNU's sed in -i mode and without the c switch. Resulting in "corrupted" files (in the sense of ownership & contex)..
Th3Zer0 said:
Ahoy everyone!
We're 2 students from the University of Milan who created a repository [https://github.com/phosphore/whatsapp-blue/wiki]
for an Android app with the aim of getting rid of those blue ticks. We're currently
considering and testing out all the possible solutions including the modification
of com.whatsapp_preferences.xml (as found by @Bexton) or the filtering of the TCP
packet responsible for the read receipt.
Although using Bexton's method greatly simplifies the solution, it is just a
temporary workaround before Whatsapp fixes it.
Having a proxy filtering the requests should be a permanent solution. We are
reverse engineering FunXMPP (WA proprietary protocol) to find that particular request.
We're open to contribution!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Could you hook up via email? I'm working on an app as well and currently considering the possibilities. Maybe it's worth sharing thought.. Please send to [email protected], thanks!
This is why I waited before investing more time into it, hehe. So, time to relax for everyone. Here is news:
Whatsapp will soon get the ability to turn off the blue checkmark read indicator, according to an alleged Beta tester of the application.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Original tweet: https://twitter.com/0xmaciln/status/530294585072025600
Via: http://www.myce.com/news/whatsapp-w...ble-privacy-sensitive-blue-check-marks-73438/
Looks like this thread will be obsolete very soon.
Bexton said:
Whatsapp will soon get the ability to turn off the blue checkmark read indicator, according to an alleged Beta tester of the application.
Original tweet: https://twitter.com/0xmaciln/status/530294585072025600
Via: http://www.myce.com/news/whatsapp-wi...k-marks-73438/
Looks like this thread will be obsolete very soon.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nice!
I think whatsapp(facebook?) expected this to come, they already had some bad experience with the "last seen" issue some time ago.
And it is already implemented as a simple switch inside XML prefs...
Bexton said:
Looks like this thread will be obsolete very soon.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hm, maybe I was wrong and it will not become obsolete. Maybe I will still build an app for it. Why? I found more news on the matter, that pointed out a major difference to me.
The same person who confirmed the additon of the on/off toggle for the read receipts, Ihlan Pektas, actually blogged about the feature already a few days ago. The essential information given in his blog post here (in German language) for me is, that he says that early alpha builds already have an implementation for it, and when you disable sending your read status (so that others can't see if you've read a msg), you will, in return, NOT be able to see the read status of your chat partners! (What makes perfectly sense, becausee it's the same way they do it for the "last seen" status.)
That being said, I think there'll be interest in an alternative. An alternative that is capable of disable sending one's own read status, while still being able to see the read status for one's own msgs, sent to others?!
Well, we'll see. (But the party ain't over yet.. )
Thanks Bexton. Tried your manual method with ES File Explorer, without making a backup, and it works. Even survives a full reboot.
Bexton said:
That being said, I think there'll be interest in an alternative. An alternative that is capable of disable sending one's own read status, while still being able to see the read status for one's own msgs, sent to others?!
Well, we'll see. (But the party ain't over yet.. )
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I see your point, but to make this happen, we need to look at another approach. Because, now we disable it by the pretty obvious flag in the pref. file, and once they release a "feature" it will be probably the same flag that will cause you not the deliver read receipts either.
The thing is, that in fact I barely use whatsapp, for various reasons. I'm here to help some non-techie friends of mine.
Anyways, I use Open WhisperSystems' TextSecure mostly (less polished and fewer features, but free, opensource, and actually secure).
So, a short while ago, they've introduced "delivery receipts". And for some reason, only I was able to get others' delivery receipts, but when others send me messages, they didn't receive a delivery receipt from me. (That's basically what we are trying to do here, just with read receipts)
At first, I was sure there is some bug in this. But then it turned out that I tuned XPrivacy too tight on restrictions, and this new feature could not get through and send the delivery notice. (unfortunately I don't remember what exactly the troublesome restriction was)
That's why i first thought about XPrivacy for this case as well.
Logically, the mechanism here might be the same, and once we find out what activity or address to block it will do the trick without letting the app itself know about it.
And it seems like @Th3Zer0 guys have the same direction in mind.
Bottom line: sounds like a good idea to find out how to "cheat" those things, and maybe build Xposed module/app on it
This seems to be the equivalent of downgrading whatsapp, letting you see blue ticks but other's cant see
It seems that it disables the part where you can highlight your own message and see who has seen the message though.
Working on 2.11.432.
Whatsapp just enabled a new feature a la Telegram where you can see who's typing in a group.
Contradictory to my previous report, I'm noticing that over time the "read_receipts" parameter keep reverting to a original value. What's weird though is that i was unable to pinpoint when it actually happening, since it happens without any kind of full phone restart in between.
Have you (@Bexton?) any insight on it?
And by the way, as I was talking about the sadly unpopular, but security-wise superior TextSecure, this post came out: Open Whisper Systems partners with WhatsApp.
Sounds promising, but it still remains to be seen how it all gets implemented and how much of a metadata leakage will be going on, since it is very unlikely that a proprietary and closed source SW company as WhatsApp will kill their business value (which is an insight on near 700M users' data) just like that.