[GUIDE]( Easiest) All about ADB, logcat, shell - Android Software/Hacking General [Developers Only]

ADB:-
Android Debug Bridge
Very useful program made itself by Google for Programmers and developers. Its based on command line and basically communicates with your Android to respond to certain commands. There is vast amount of knowledge about adb but its most useful commands limit to getting:-
Logcat:-
A real time log of what is happening in background of our devices. It is really useful for developers to see which component has malfunctioned and helps to narrow down their search for what failed and what needs to be fixed. Several times users are asked to give logcats of their devices which are giving errors. We will go in detail that how to get logcats in every and easiest way possible.
App Installation and Management:-
adb proves really handy if you want to install apks directly from your PC or want to batch install or delete them.
Shell Execution:-
You must have heard of Terminal Emulator. It is an app for android to execute shell commands(linux commands) which are basically present as applets in /system/bin, /system/sbin or /system/xbin(in our case) folders. A very imporant applet called busybox is installed there mainly used for execution of basic commands during root browsing or ROM installation. Many times updater script of ROMs use busybox commands to install it. Well, these commands can be initiated from your device too but they can be initiated from adb also making it easy for programmers.
Pushing and Pulling:-
Most used commands of adb. adb makes it a piece of cake for new device developers to get an ideo of structure and basic knowledge of devices by pulling command. We can pull out i.e copy any files or folders from our devices to our PC, even the root directories without rooting the devices. It help rooters and ROM chefs of new devices to get an idea and implement their mods on them. Pushing is also very useful command. It copies your files and folders from PC to your device. Very useful in pushing some /system apps and other things
Remounting and setting permissions
Basic commands:-
Of-course basic commands such as reooting and rebooting in recovery ode and download mode are supported.
Others:-
There are several other features of adb such as fastboot, aapt, etc
Setting up ADB
Pre Requirements:-
A little amount of brain
PC(This is a windows guide, if asked I will add linux and mac guide later)
Java Runtime environment or Java Developing kit
Your Device Drivers
An Android Device
Assuming you all these ready and working properly, we continue
If you are having trouble completing Pre-Requisites, there are several guides featuring them too
Start
1. First Download Android SDK. Roughly about 70 MB
2. There may be any compressed zip file or exe file
If zip file, then extract it to C:\android-sdk
If exe file then double click on it and install it in C:\ Drive(or any other drive you want)
3. Now to get adb and other tools, you need to download 'Platform Tools'
To download them, go to the android-sdk folder and double click on SDK Manager
It will ask you which package to download? However, it is your choice which package to Download, but here, we will only talk about platform
Tools. So, simply tick on Platform Tools and click on install. Once you have done it. Go to the platform-tools folder in the directory where you installed android-sdk. You will find several files there like adb, fastboot, aapt, etc
4. Now, you can backup the whole folder of android-sdk to any external storage that will make you not download package
again if you want to. You can have it placed in any computer and run it as it does not require registry to work
5. Now, you are just one step away from using adb. Next step is SKIPPING SETTING ENVIRONMENT VARIABLE
Many guides on internet say that it is to be done for making it easy for users and if you have some basic knowledge of Command Prompt,
you will know that to execute any application with command prompt, you first need to change the directory to the one where application is
placed. And to skip changing the directories every time you open CMD, you need to put that application is environment variable. Howeve, we will not do so.
6. Type cmd in the search bar. Copy cmd.exe from there. Go to the directory where you have installed android-sdk. Go to platform-tools folder. Paste cmd there, right click on it and in the settings, select Run as Administrator.
7. You are done. Now what to do in it?
ADB Commands
Type adb in command prompt. And several commands will show up on your screen. It is very difficult to analyse these all commands, so we will only talk about most used and important commands
Connect your device via USB cable
And open the CMD in platform-tools folder(Make a shortcut of it on desktop). And type the suitable commands
Code:
adb devices
Will show the list of devices attached to the PC andtheir serial numbers. If this shows up correctly on your PC, then it means that everything is fine for continuing.
Logcat
Code:
adb logcat
It will display the real time log of your device
Best time to do it is when your device boots up
Now, many users ask me how to copy the logcat and upload it from CMD
There are several methods:-
1. Right click on the Title Bar of Command Prompt. Hover the cursor over edit and select mark. Select all the things you want to copy and then click enter. All the things will be copied to clipboard.
2. This is the correct way of getting logcat saved.
Code:
adb logcat > logcat.txt
This command will create a logcat.txt document in platform-tools folder with the complete logcat of the device. Ofcourse you can type any name instead of logcat.txt
3. I prefer taking logcat this way as it neatly compiles logs of different time
Code:
adb logcat -v long > logcat.txt
This is a very nice way to get logcat.
Installing Apps
Code:
adb install %PATH OF APK%
This will install an app on your Android
For example, if my app AreeB.apk is in G:\ drive (G:\AreeB.apk)
Then I will type
Code:
adb install G:\AreeB.apk
Be sure your apk is not in a folder that has space in its name, else the command will break at space bar.
For eg:-
G:\Program Files\AreeB.apk
Mounting
However, I never found any problem in tweaking with system files with adb, but some users said that they couldn't do it, so the problem was that their system partition was mounted as Read Only(R/O)
So, it is necessary now to tell how to mount system partition as Read Write(R/W)
Code:
adb remount
It is easiest way to do so, if it does not work then
There is another method that we will discuss in ADB Shell commands section
Pushing and Pulling
For pushing,
Type
Code:
adb push %PATH TO BE PUSHED% %PATH WHERE TO BE PUSHED%
Suppose I have an app named SystemUI.apk(PATH = G:\SystemUI.apk) which I want to push in /system/app/ on my android(or in other words, install an app as a system app). Then I would type
Code:
adb push G:\SystemUI.apk /system/app/
More examples
G:\Dance.txt file to be pushed in Dance folder in sdcard
Code:
adb push G:\Dance.txt /sdcard/Dance/
OR
Code:
adb push G:\Dance.txt /mnt/sdcard/Dance/
G:\Movies folder to be transferred in SDCARD in Videos Folder
Code:
adb push G:\Movies /sdcard/Videos/
G:\system\framework\framework-res.apk to be pushed in /system/framework/
Code:
adb push G:\system\framework\framework-res.apk /system/framework/
For pulling,
push command replaces with pull and paths are swapped
Code:
adb pull %PATH TO BE PULLED FROM% %PATH TO PLACE PULLED FILE%
Example,
All system apps are to be pulled to G:\ROM\system\app
Code:
adb pull /system/app G:\ROM\system\app\
build.prop to be extracted to desktop
Code:
adb pull /system/build.prop C:\Users\Areeb\Desktop\
However, if a folder is in platform-tools folder, you don't need to type full path
Suppose if I type
Code:
adb pull /system/ system
Then a folder named system will be created inside platform-tools with all the files in system in it
If a file is in platform-tools folder, then also no need to type full path
For example,
There is an app name DeskClock.apk in this folder then, to push it to /system/app, type
Code:
adb push DeskClock.apk /system/app/
ADB Shell Commands
This mode of adb allows you to execute linux shell commands from your PC
These commands can aldo be executed through the mobile using Terminal Emulator
To initiate shell mode
Type
Code:
adb shell
You will get an prompt like this
sh-3.2#
Now you are in shell mode
adb commands won't work here and a new set of commands will work here. But we will only go in a little detail here.
Assuming you are in adb shell mode, I will only type commands that will work on shell. Note:- These commands won't work if you type them alone on cmd. But, these command will directly work on your mobile's Terminal Emulator
As these commands can also work on mobile, I am going to tell you a way of taking logcat on mobile
Type
Code:
logcat
You will see log of your device
To save this
Type
Code:
logcat > /sdcard/log.txt
A file named log.txt will be generated in sdcard
Uninstalling Applications
Code:
cd /data/app
This will change the directory to /data/app
Code:
ls
This will show the list of files in there
Suppose, there is an app named com.opera.browser (Opera Mobile) you want to uninstall it
Type
Code:
rm -r com.opera.browser
This will uninstall the app
Mounting Command:-
Code:
mount -o rw,remount /dev/block/mtdblock3 /system
Miscellanous commands:-
su: Initiates root request
du: Shows file foldrs and size
date: Shows todays date
Forgot next ones, will write later
Credits
Google: For Android and several searchings
Samsung: For Galaxy Ace s5830I
Broadcom: For their Open Sourceness
XDA Forums : For the precious knowledge
My Uncle: For gifting me this Phone
My Teachers: For teaching me English(I would not be here without them)
You: For future Thanks
Till now, thats it, will add some more things later
If any problem, I will add it too
Suggestion? They are welcome

Related

Where are located the launched process at boot ?

Hi, i just rooted my hero yesterday.
I have some small capacities on linux, and i wnated to know if there is ( and where it is ) an equivalent to the /etc/init.d and different rc.x.d config. file for the process launched at boot. I wouldl ike to edit or delete some programs launching at startup which i don't need really to launch at startup Is it possible and simple ?
Ciao
Fred
Edit : stupid question... there is no vi on the system so no way to edit the file ..
I am even new than you to android rooting (just rooted my Sprint Hero 2.1 today!).
I loaded Fresh ROM 2.1.2 on my Hero today and there's an app called "ES File Explorer". It allows me to browse the unix-like filesystem, right to the directory you mentioned above.
I can click on the files and open them as Text, Executable, etc. Opening as Text even gives me two different text editors.
Unfortuantly, the file(s) you talk about are for readonly. You have to be logged in as a Superuser to edit them (as I found out today). The easiest way I found is to do it via a command-line prompt.
When you "root" your android phone, that means you are able to login remotely as another user. Such as the "superuser" account from the Android SDK. On Windows, after you have rooted your phone, you can do:
Code:
C:\android\tools\> adb remount
C:\android\tools\> adb shell
#
When you see that "#" prompt, you are now logged into your phone running the default shell (not sure which shell it is). So, now you can copy/open that file:
Code:
# cd \
# type init.rc | more
Of course u can't do squat from here. So, you have two options:
1) Change the permissions to allow you to modify it from the Android device itself (possible security issue if u download a broken app that wants to modify your phone).
Code:
# chmod 755 init.rc
Now you are able to modify the file locally, right on your device. No PC needed any longer. But again, it's a possible seucrity issue.
2) just pull the file from your device to your desktop pc, edit it, and push it back. Exit out of the # shell by typing "exit" and pressing enter. At the C prompt, pull the file:
Code:
C:\android\tools\> adb pull /init.rc C:\init.rc
That pulls the file from your android device and places it at C:\init.rc. You can obmit the C:\ part, which would place the file in your android Tools folder u are running adb from (mine is getting messy though).
Once you edit it to your liking, push it back to your device:
Code:
C:\android\tools\> adb push C:\init.rc /init.rc
And that's it.
most custom roms contain nano, which is also a possible way to edit files.
I updated my post to reflect actual directions on how to modify a system file like that.

[Q] ADB doesn't work on Mac

When I CD to the platform-tools folder and type
Code:
adb devices
it says "adb: command not found" If anyone could help me that would be wonderful. I am on the Inspire/DesireHD running AOSP Gingerbread. Thanks!
You have two choices. You can either run the command prefixed with ./ (dot slash), which allows for executing an executable in the current directory:
Code:
./adb devices
Or, the other choice (which will be better if you intend to use adb a lot) is to add the platform-tools folder to your path by editing or creating the file .bashrc in your home folder (~/.bashrc).
Let's suppose your platform tools folder is: ~/.android-sdk/platform-tools
Then, you would want to add something along the lines of the following to your bashrc:
Code:
export PATH="$PATH:$HOME/.android-sdk/platform-tools"
Save the file, the run this or log out/in:
Code:
source ~/.bashrc
Et voila, you should now be able to run adb from any folder without issue.
Explanation: adding the new path (folder) to your PATH environment variable tells BASH to include that folder in its search for an executable. The reason $PATH is added at the beginning of the new string is so that your default path does not get overwritten. $HOME will simply expand to /home/your_user_name when BASH interprets it.
GENIUS! IT WORKED! Thank you! Now, one more question- how do I get superuser privileges using ADB? (device is rooted, of course)
No problem.
On my G1 you were root as soon as you adb'd in. Just tested on my Defy and '$' - shocking. So once you have run adb shell, just run 'su' (without quotes of course) and accept the permission on your phone screen as usual for root programs and you should be good to go.
Sorry to keep asking questions, but when I typed
Code:
su
into adb, it asked for a password. No popup on device screen. I do have superuser installed on the device.
That is odd. I'm not sure why that would be. I'll see if I can think of something though. Hopefully someone else can make a suggestion.
Thanks! You have been very helpful.
Don't think I can hit the thanks button from the app, sorry
Sent from my Inspire 4G using XDA App

[FIX] [GUIDE] ADB command not found issue

Hi, I'm posting this because I had a lot of problems with ADB shell and its drivers, etc.
Problem: when you try to input a command inside ADB like REBOOT , ADB shell comes back as " ADB: not found"
PPL say you need to re-install drivers, java, SDK, etc.. well none of that worked for me and many users here. I even tried to reinstall Windows.. but that was a no go ether.
FIX: the only way that I could make ADB to send commands to the phone was making a .BAT file and add the commands in there and execute the bat to run the ADB commands.
GUIDE: this is what's inside the .BAT
:cd %:h
adb wait-for-device
**YOUR COMMANDS HERE**
adb wait-for-device
adb shell sync
pause
now for example: you have a THREAD that describe what you need to do to push files with ADB like this
1) Unzip the two files into the directory where ADB is kept
2) Get to that directory in command prompt
3) Connect your phone if you haven't done so already
4) adb remount
5) adb push gps.conf /system/etc
6) adb push SuplRootCert /system/etc
7) adb reboot
now the only thing that you need to do is RIGHT CLICK the Auto ADB.BAT and click EDIT
:cd %:h
adb wait-for-device
**YOUR COMMANDS HERE**
adb wait-for-device
adb shell sync
pause
Just copy and paste the ADB commands from the THREAD there, like this.
:cd %:h
adb wait-for-device
adb remount
adb push gps.conf /system/etc
adb push SuplRootCert /system/etc
adb reboot
adb wait-for-device
adb shell sync
pause
and close and save the changes, after you inputted your commands just place the Auto ADB.BAT in the folder where you have ADB shell install (E.X: "adb.exe" C:\AndroidSDK\Tools or \Desktop\ADB where you install it or downloaded the folder)
After that it's done. Every time you want to use ADB just EDIT the .BAT, close, save, and execute the .BAT.
Here I leave some THREADS in reference for installing ADB and its components.
[GUIDE] (For Noobs) SDK, ADB, and Drivers
Posted by the user *MLIGN*
Basic adb/shell commands for noobs
Posted by the user *brandenk*
The method mention above (Auto ADB.BAT) it's the last resort when everything else fails and you cannot send commands to adb shell.
I hope this will help some ppl, I spent many days trying to find out a way to make ADB work and this is what I found.
Please be nice in here and if you found another way, I gladly post it up front.
And remember to say Thanks if I helped you
thanks!
matury said:
Hi, I'm posting this because I had a lot of problems with ADB shell and its drivers, etc.
Problem: when you try to input a command inside ADB like REBOOT , ADB shell comes back as " ADB: not found"
PPL say you need to re-install drivers, java, SDK, etc.. well none of that worked for me and many users here. I even tried to reinstall Windows.. but that was a no go ether.
FIX: the only way that I could make ADB to send commands to the phone was making a .BAT file and add the commands in there and execute the bat to run the ADB commands.
GUIDE: this is what's inside the .BAT
:cd %:h
adb wait-for-device
**YOUR COMMANDS HERE**
adb wait-for-device
adb shell sync
pause
now for example: you have a THREAD that describe what you need to do to push files with ADB like this
1) Unzip the two files into the directory where ADB is kept
2) Get to that directory in command prompt
3) Connect your phone if you haven't done so already
4) adb remount
5) adb push gps.conf /system/etc
6) adb push SuplRootCert /system/etc
7) adb reboot
now the only thing that you need to do is RIGHT CLICK the Auto ADB.BAT and click EDIT
:cd %:h
adb wait-for-device
**YOUR COMMANDS HERE**
adb wait-for-device
adb shell sync
pause
Just copy and paste the ADB commands from the THREAD there, like this.
:cd %:h
adb wait-for-device
adb remount
adb push gps.conf /system/etc
adb push SuplRootCert /system/etc
adb reboot
adb wait-for-device
adb shell sync
pause
and close and save the changes, after you inputted your commands just place the Auto ADB.BAT in the folder where you have ADB shell install (E.X: "adb.exe" C:\AndroidSDK\Tools or \Desktop\ADB where you install it or downloaded the folder)
After that it's done. Every time you want to use ADB just EDIT the .BAT, close, save, and execute the .BAT.
Here I leave some THREADS in reference for installing ADB and its components.
[GUIDE] (For Noobs) SDK, ADB, and Drivers
Posted by the user *MLIGN*
Basic adb/shell commands for noobs
Posted by the user *brandenk*
The method mention above (Auto ADB.BAT) it's the last resort when everything else fails and you cannot send commands to adb shell.
I hope this will help some ppl, I spent many days trying to find out a way to make ADB work and this is what I found.
Please be nice in here and if you found another way, I gladly post it up front.
And remember to say Thanks if I helped you
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks am new here and I had the same problem I couldn't get the adb to respond at all, I did reinstall and all but it came back as not found, however this method worked fine. Thanks

[WINDOWS][TUT]ADB tutorial, setting up ADB, usefull commands, collecting debug info.

Hi all.
Everyone here on our forum wants to help devs by testing different stuff but devs wants testers to send debug info to them so they can resolve bugs. Notifying bugs without logcats is useless and some users don't know how to collect these debug data.
To collect debug info there is a tool named ADB (Android Debugging Bridge). we r very small community and there are not plenty of sgr users around here so we have to worry about knowledgeable testers. so i m making this basic instructional guide to ADB. about how to set up ADB on windows and some basic usage.
Setting up ADB on windows.​
Know this first.
> ADB requires usb drivers. So first of all install kies so that ur pc detects ur phone and ADB can recognise ur phone.
> Android is linux based and in linux commands are case sensitive so while typing these command use propare case otherwise commands won't execute.
> Windows uses back slash [\] and linux uses forward slash [/] so while typing file locations. For location of file in ur pc use back slash and for files in ur phone/sd card use forward slash.
there are two ways to setup adb on ur windows pc.
1 > download the android sdk, it includes the adb
u can download latest android sdk from HERE.
2 > only download adb package, no need of downloading the whole sdk.
look at the end of post to find the zip file of adb package.
now after downloading:
if u have downloaded sdk read this:
> after downloading sdk, extract it to ur desired location.
> after extracting, open that folder and goto "platform-tools" folder.
> now hold the shift key and hit right click in that directory
> click "open command window here"
> u will see command promp, type "adb" in command prompt. if adb executes means u have successfully setup adb on ur windows.
if u r using without sdk:
> just extract the package
> hold shift key, hit right click and choose "open command prompt here"
> type "abd" in command prompt and check if adb executes.
now as we have successfully setup adb lets begin to some basic commands.
first of all connect ur phone using usb cable. make sure u have checked usb debugging in settings>applications>development>check usb debugging.
now open adb as mentioned above and type
Code:
adb devices
u should see
Code:
list of attached devices
xyz device
xyz will be name of ur device, as default it will be some number.
Basic usefull ADB commands​
1.
Code:
adb pull
this command can be used copy files from ur device to ur pc.
for eg.
Code:
adb pull /system/app/Camera.apk
this will copy the camera app to the directory where adb is extracted.
if u know the path u can copy anything using this command.
2.
Code:
adb push
this command can be used to push files to ur phone.
type the command, drag and drop the file in command prompt and than type location where u want to push that file and hit enter.
for eg, if i want to push image named android.jpg stored in my C drive.
Code:
adb push C:\android.jpg /sdcard/
this will push that image to sdcard.
sometimes we have to push some packages in specified folders. just type the location after file name.
for eg
Code:
abd push C:\sanim.zip /system/media
3.
Code:
adb install
with help of this command we can install apps to our phone dorectly from pc.
for eg. type "adb install" than leave one space with mouse choose apk file of app u want to install and drag and drop it in command prompt. path of that app will be displayed in command prompt. like this.
Code:
adb install C:\adb\Camera.apk
by executing this command u can install the app u have dragged and dropped in command prompt.
As i have written for windows but these commands can be used on ADB on linux/MacOS as well but i have only mentioned the set-up guide for windows only.
Credits/Source.​
http://developer.android.com/tools/help/index.html
Getting Debug Infos (Logcats)​
1. logcat
logcat is a report from android logging system which runs in background from the moment u boot ur phone. and it haves all the info what went wrong with system.
generally we can see logcat by typing
Code:
adb logcat
but that will show the constant data flow so better save it as file so can be sent to dev or u can study it later.
Code:
adb logcat > log.txt
this will store the logcat to directory of adb and collect log in text file.
2. bugreport
Code:
adb bugreport
bug report prints dumpsys, dumpstate, and logcat data to the screen. which can be used for bug reporting.
3. Java Debug Wire Protocol
Code:
adb jdwp
this command prints the list of available JDWP processes on connected device in command prompt.
Logcats On Mobile​u can directly generate logcat on ur mobile using Terminal Emulator app, there are many terminal apps in market. CM comes with pre-loaded Terminal Emulator.
some terminal apps:
Android Terminal
Terminal Emulator
RomToolbox
u will need root access to generate logs
open terminal app, u will see following screen
Code:
$ export PATH=/data/local/bin:$PATH
$
now type su and hit enter.
allow super user permissions.
now to get a logcat type following command.
Code:
logcat > /mnt/sdcard/logcat.txt
this will generate text file named logcat.txt on root of ur sdcard which is containing logcat.
to get DMESG (Kernel Debug)
open terminal and type following command
Code:
su
dmesg > /mnt/sdcard/dmesg.txt
this will generate text file named dmesg.txt on root of ur sdcard which is containing kernel debug log.
Kernel Debugging.​
we can use adb to debug kernel issues.
Code:
adb shell
dmesg
this will generate a log which is very helpful to resolve kernel issues, we just have to send this log to dev, he will look after it.
sometimes after flashing kernel we go into bootloop in that cases generate logcat using this commands and send to dev it will be very helpfull for dev to know and resolve reason causing bootloop.
Code:
adb shell
cat /proc/last_kmsg > /sdcard/last_kmsg
this command should be executed immediately on reboot otherwise it will be over written by new kernel message. the file will be stored on root of ur sdcard named last_kmsg. send this file to kernel dev it will help him great to resolve the problem.
Read this if u dont know how to get files from ur sdcard even if ur phone is not booting and stuck at bootloop.
u must have CWM to do this.
>boot ur phone in recovery mode (by holding VOL UP and HOME key together on boot)
>goto "Mounts and Storage"
>Select "Mount USB Storage" and plug in your data cable.
>Now u can access ur sdcard on ur pc, after ur work is done click "Unmount"
Hi,
Just a noob question... if my phone is stuck in a bootloop, is there anyway for me to get a logcat without flashing a new rom???
Sent from my GT-I9103 using xda app-developers app
JoJo2012 said:
Hi,
Just a noob question... if my phone is stuck in a bootloop, is there anyway for me to get a logcat without flashing a new rom???
Sent from my GT-I9103 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you have enabled USB Debugging , yes
"I have to go. It's just....they really need me." - Sora
Re: Toggle mobile data on and off via adb
Does anybody know how to toggle mobile data on and off via ADB?? IM WILLING TO PAY FOR THIS INFO lol I NEED IT THAT BAD!! PM ME PLEEEASE!!!!!
12manytimes said:
Does anybody know how to toggle mobile data on and off via ADB?? IM WILLING TO PAY FOR THIS INFO lol I NEED IT THAT BAD!! PM ME PLEEEASE!!!!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
'adb shell su -c "svc data disable"' and 'adb shell su -c "svc data enable"'. You must be rooted.
Sent from my GT-I9103 with CM10
Adam77Root said:
'adb shell su -c "svc data disable"' and 'adb shell su -c "svc data enable"'. You must be rooted.
Sent from my GT-I9103 with CM10
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks alot, i just sent you a PM but it shows that i didn't send anything, so if you didn't get the message please send me one cuz id like to buy you a beer!
I wish i could hit your thanks button a million times right now lol
Hello I am trying to create a batch file that has an infinite loop and was wondering if there are any adb commands that can do this.
I am also looking for an adb command that waits x amount of seconds before performing the next command.?
Any help would be greatly appreciated

[GUIDE][ADB] How to take a logcat

iamareebjamal said:
ADB:-
Android Debug Bridge
Very useful program made itself by Google for Programmers and developers. Its based on command line and basically communicates with your Android to respond to certain commands. There is vast amount of knowledge about adb but its most useful commands limit to getting:-
Logcat:-
A real time log of what is happening in background of our devices. It is really useful for developers to see which component has malfunctioned and helps to narrow down their search for what failed and what needs to be fixed. Several times users are asked to give logcats of their devices which are giving errors. We will go in detail that how to get logcats in every and easiest way possible.
App Installation and Management:-
adb proves really handy if you want to install apks directly from your PC or want to batch install or delete them.
Shell Execution:-
You must have heard of Terminal Emulator. It is an app for android to execute shell commands(linux commands) which are basically present as applets in /system/bin, /system/sbin or /system/xbin(in our case) folders. A very imporant applet called busybox is installed there mainly used for execution of basic commands during root browsing or ROM installation. Many times updater script of ROMs use busybox commands to install it. Well, these commands can be initiated from your device too but they can be initiated from adb also making it easy for programmers.
Pushing and Pulling:-
Most used commands of adb. adb makes it a piece of cake for new device developers to get an ideo of structure and basic knowledge of devices by pulling command. We can pull out i.e copy any files or folders from our devices to our PC, even the root directories without rooting the devices. It help rooters and ROM chefs of new devices to get an idea and implement their mods on them. Pushing is also very useful command. It copies your files and folders from PC to your device. Very useful in pushing some /system apps and other things
Remounting and setting permissions
Basic commands:-
Of-course basic commands such as rebooting and rebooting in recovery mode and download mode are supported.
Others:-
There are several other features of adb such as fastboot, aapt, etc
Setting up ADB
Pre Requirements:-
A little amount of brain
PC(This is a windows guide, if asked I will add linux and mac guide later)
Java Runtime environment or Java Developing kit
Your Device Drivers
An Android Device
USB Debugging MUST be turned ON in the device for ADB to see it & Developer options is hidden in Android 4.2 and
above, Hitting Build number 10 times in
About Phone/Tablet reveals the menu (Thanks lilHermit for reminding me to add it)
Assuming you all these ready and working properly, we continue
If you are having trouble completing Pre-Requisites, there are several guides featuring them too
Start
1. First Download Android SDK. Roughly about 70 MB
2. There may be any compressed zip file or exe file
If zip file, then extract it to C:\android-sdk
If exe file then double click on it and install it in C:\ Drive(or any other drive you want)
3. Now to get adb and other tools, you need to download 'Platform Tools'
To download them, go to the android-sdk folder and double click on SDK Manager
It will ask you which package to download? However, it is your choice which package to Download, but here, we will only talk about platform
Tools. So, simply tick on Platform Tools and click on install. Once you have done it. Go to the platform-tools folder in the directory where you installed android-sdk. You will find several files there like adb, fastboot, aapt, etc
4. Now, you can backup the whole folder of android-sdk to any external storage that will make you not download package
again if you want to. You can have it placed in any computer and run it as it does not require registry to work
5. Now, you are just one step away from using adb. Next step is SKIPPING SETTING ENVIRONMENT VARIABLE (If you however want to set environment variables. Click on Show Content)
We can easily append the sdk platform-tools and tools folder to your systems environmental path variable directly from command line(cmd) by simply issuing one command and performing a system reboot:
Code:
SETX PATH "%PATH%;[COLOR="Indigo"]SDK_Install_Path[/COLOR]\platform-tools;[COLOR="Indigo"]SDK_Install_Path[/COLOR]\android-sdk-windows\tools" -m
Just replace the "SDK_Install_Path" in the above with the proper path of your SDK installation. Example: C:\android-sdk-windows
(Thanks to WugFresh for telling me :victory
Many guides on internet say that it is to be done for making it easy for users and if you have some basic knowledge of Command Prompt,
you will know that to execute any application with command prompt, you first need to change the directory to the one where application is
placed. And to skip changing the directories every time you open CMD, you need to put that application is environment variable. Howeve, we will not do so.
6. Type cmd in the search bar. Copy cmd.exe from there. Go to the directory where you have installed android-sdk. Go to platform-tools folder. Paste cmd there, right click on it and in the settings, select Run as Administrator.
7. You are done. Now what to do in it?
ADB Commands
Type adb in command prompt. And several commands will show up on your screen. It is very difficult to analyse these all commands, so we will only talk about most used and important commands
Connect your device via USB cable
And open the CMD in platform-tools folder(Make a shortcut of it on desktop). And type the suitable commands
Code:
adb devices
Will show the list of devices attached to the PC andtheir serial numbers. If this shows up correctly on your PC, then it means that everything is fine for continuing.
Logcat
Code:
adb logcat
It will display the real time log of your device
Best time to do it is when your device boots up
Now, many users ask me how to copy the logcat and upload it from CMD
There are several methods:-
1. Right click on the Title Bar of Command Prompt. Hover the cursor over edit and select mark. Select all the things you want to copy and then click enter. All the things will be copied to clipboard.
2. This is the correct way of getting logcat saved.
Code:
adb logcat > logcat.txt
This command will create a logcat.txt document in platform-tools folder with the complete logcat of the device. Ofcourse you can type any name instead of logcat.txt
3. I prefer taking logcat this way as it neatly compiles logs of different time
Code:
adb logcat -v long > logcat.txt
This is a very nice way to get logcat.
Installing Apps
Code:
adb install %PATH OF APK%
This will install an app on your Android
For example, if my app AreeB.apk is in G:\ drive (G:\AreeB.apk)
Then I will type
Code:
adb install G:\AreeB.apk
Be sure your apk is not in a folder that has space in its name, else the command will break at space bar.
For eg:-
G:\Program Files\AreeB.apk
Note:
If you have spaces in path of apk, you can execute the command without breakage if you include the path inside quotes. (Thanks to etcman)
Eg:-
Code:
adb install "G:\Program Files\AreeB.apk"
Mounting
However, I never found any problem in tweaking with system files with adb, but some users said that they couldn't do it, so the problem was that their system partition was mounted as Read Only(R/O)
So, it is necessary now to tell how to mount system partition as Read Write(R/W)
Code:
adb remount
It is easiest way to do so, if it does not work then
There is another method that we will discuss in ADB Shell commands section
Pushing and Pulling
For pushing,
Type
Code:
adb push %PATH TO BE PUSHED% %PATH WHERE TO BE PUSHED%
Suppose I have an app named SystemUI.apk(PATH = G:\SystemUI.apk) which I want to push in /system/app/ on my android(or in other words, install an app as a system app). Then I would type
Code:
adb push G:\SystemUI.apk /system/app/
More examples
G:\Dance.txt file to be pushed in Dance folder in sdcard
Code:
adb push G:\Dance.txt /sdcard/Dance/
OR
Code:
adb push G:\Dance.txt /mnt/sdcard/Dance/
G:\Movies folder to be transferred in SDCARD in Videos Folder
Code:
adb push G:\Movies /sdcard/Videos/
G:\system\framework\framework-res.apk to be pushed in /system/framework/
Code:
adb push G:\system\framework\framework-res.apk /system/framework/
For pulling,
push command replaces with pull and paths are swapped
Code:
adb pull %PATH TO BE PULLED FROM% %PATH TO PLACE PULLED FILE%
Example,
All system apps are to be pulled to G:\ROM\system\app
Code:
adb pull /system/app G:\ROM\system\app\
build.prop to be extracted to desktop
Code:
adb pull /system/build.prop C:\Users\Areeb\Desktop\
However, if a folder is in platform-tools folder, you don't need to type full path
Suppose if I type
Code:
adb pull /system/ system
Then a folder named system will be created inside platform-tools with all the files in system in it
If a file is in platform-tools folder, then also no need to type full path
For example,
There is an app name DeskClock.apk in this folder then, to push it to /system/app, type
Code:
adb push DeskClock.apk /system/app/
ADB Shell Commands
This mode of adb allows you to execute linux shell commands from your PC
These commands can aldo be executed through the mobile using Terminal Emulator
To initiate shell mode
Type
Code:
adb shell
You will get an prompt like this
sh-3.2#
Now you are in shell mode
adb commands won't work here and a new set of commands will work here. But we will only go in a little detail here.
Assuming you are in adb shell mode, I will only type commands that will work on shell. Note:- These commands won't work if you type them alone on cmd. But, these command will directly work on your mobile's Terminal Emulator
As these commands can also work on mobile, I am going to tell you a way of taking logcat on mobile
Type
Code:
logcat
You will see log of your device
To save this
Type
Code:
logcat > /sdcard/log.txt
A file named log.txt will be generated in sdcard
Uninstalling Applications
Code:
cd /data/app
This will change the directory to /data/app
Code:
ls
This will show the list of files in there
Suppose, there is an app named com.opera.browser (Opera Mobile) you want to uninstall it
Type
Code:
rm -r com.opera.browser
This will uninstall the app
Mounting Command:-
Code:
mount -o rw,remount /dev/block/mtdblock3 /system
Miscellanous commands:-
su: Initiates root request
du: Shows file foldrs and size
date: Shows todays date
ls: Shows list of directory
cd: Changes working directory
rm: Removes the file
logcat: Displays logcat
mount: Mounts the partition
busybox: Busybox Applets
Forgot next ones, will write later
Credits
Google: For Android and several searchings
Samsung: For Galaxy Ace s5830I
paxChristos for amazing logcat guide
Broadcom: For their Open Sourceness
XDA Forums : For the precious knowledge
My Uncle: For gifting me this Phone
My Teachers: For teaching me English(I would not be here without them)
You: For future Thanks
Till now, thats it, will add some more things later
If any problem, I will add it too
Suggestion? They are welcome
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This should help the new members in appealing their problems in a deeper and better way.
Originally posted by iamareebjamal
Original thread here.

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