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[MOD][12/03/09] ADB Remount, Superuser, and Busybox

I'd been trying to figure out how to set up a few simple things in my rooted, post-MR, but otherwise stock CDMA Hero. Namely, ADB Remount permissions (/default.prop file), set up Superuser to properly manage permissions for apps that require root, and install Busybox. Ideally, I wanted to set these up manually. Turns out it's not as simple as one might hope. ADB Remount, for example, requires that you modify and repackage the boot.img/recovery.img.
So, what I've got here is a minimal update.zip file you can apply to your phone via the recovery console. Nothing crazy, it's just MoDaCo's ROM 1.1, but with everything taken out except for the aforementioned items. Once you patch your phone, just these items will be configured and your phone will still look, run, etc. the same as before. Also, a2sd will be copied to your /system/bin directory, but it's something that had to stay in the file for some reason, otherwise the phone wouldn't boot. Probably a setting Paul built into the boot.img.
In any case, here it is. It's working well for me. Hope it helps some of you out too.
****
Thanks goes to Paul of course (MoDaCo) camalot (Droid Explorer) and dagnasty for telling me about the auto-sign plugin that's available in Droid Explorer.
Instructions for manually installing Busybox over here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=591303
****

I responded on ppcgeeks:
mercado79 said:
IAlso, a2sd will be copied to your /system/bin directory, but it's something that had to stay in the file for some reason, otherwise the phone wouldn't boot. Probably a setting Paul built into the boot.img.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yup. It's a script that was added to the boot.img-ramdisk that copies all of your apps to your sd when apps2sd's requirements are met.

So if the sdcard is not partitioned correctly then ap2sd will not run, yes?

Smacky55 said:
So if the sdcard is not partitioned correctly then ap2sd will not run, yes?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
"Correctly" is relative. If there is no EXT partition on the sdcard, then the ROM won't try to move your applications to it. But the script runs regardless.

Sorry, meant if sdcard isn't partitioned at all. Thanks for the answer.

flipzmode told me in another thread that even though this script is included, that doesn't mean that the update.zip i posted will enable apps2sd for anyone. there's more required in order to get it to work (i stripped most everything out).

A few simple questions. re -stock 1.56... rom
1) in the zip system folder, its refers to /xbin ; does that require that /system/xbin be pre-existent, or will it create it ?
2) busybox is in /system/bin on mine. Do I need to remove it?
a) if so then due to the "busybox --install -s /system/bin"
command , how do i remove the current symbolic busybox entry points?
b)have $PATH changes been applied to overwrite the current export
3) empty init.sh file?
4) google meta references?
I think I may understand the need to get bootstrap-"root" permissions established, is there another way as well?
Thanks for dealing with these noobie questions.

Thanks for this. worked out great.

willy900wonka said:
A few simple questions. re -stock 1.56... rom
1) in the zip system folder, its refers to /xbin ; does that require that /system/xbin be pre-existent, or will it create it ?
2) busybox is in /system/bin on mine. Do I need to remove it?
a) if so then due to the "busybox --install -s /system/bin"
command , how do i remove the current symbolic busybox entry points?
b)have $PATH changes been applied to overwrite the current export
3) empty init.sh file?
4) google meta references?
I think I may understand the need to get bootstrap-"root" permissions established, is there another way as well?
Thanks for dealing with these noobie questions.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
sorry willy man. not sure what i can tell you. i'm pretty close to being a newbie myself. i never fully understood what the script was doing. i simply took the original modaco update and compared it to another script paul had posted on his forums last fall.
if you unzip the file, you should be able to see everything that's going on. the file structure is super simple, so modify it to suit your needs and give it a try. worst case, you'll need to revert to a nandroid backup. oh, and don't forget you'll need to sign the file and zip it back up in order to flash it onto the phone.
come to think of it, i guess maybe i should update the script using the latest modaco rom, though i'm not sure how helpful it'd be for everyone. to be honest, i've since bitten the bullet and moved on to flipz's rom and the gumbo kernel. runs beautifully!

Ok, so I formated the card, put the .zip file on the sdcard and tried to press home+power to enter the recovery council. When I hold home and press power I am taking to a screen that has an exclamation point and an image of the phone.
Can anyone help?

partylatino420 said:
Ok, so I formated the card, put the .zip file on the sdcard and tried to press home+power to enter the recovery council. When I hold home and press power I am taking to a screen that has an exclamation point and an image of the phone.
Can anyone help?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Boot the phone by holding home only. And...I'm assuming you have the recovery console installed and are rooted.

I think the problem is that a recovery boot image was not previously installed. A green screen with a set of options should've appeared.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=596879
I prefer 1.2.3

mercado79 said:
Boot the phone by holding home only. And...I'm assuming you have the recovery console installed and are rooted.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I did root the phone but I am not familiar with the recovery council. I tried to search for this but was unsuccessful.
I just got my Hero last week so I am still new to all of this. Can you point me in the right direction?

partylatino420 said:
I did root the phone but I am not familiar with the recovery council. I tried to search for this but was unsuccessful.
I just got my Hero last week so I am still new to all of this. Can you point me in the right direction?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=596879 explanation
code from : http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=583291
13:
Code:
adb push recovery-RA-heroc-v1.5.2.img /sdcard
Pushing is equivalent of copy the file to the root of your sdcard. By the time you finished reading this it should be done. You'll know its done because the ouput will say something like transferred X bytes in X secs.
14:
Code:
adb shell reboot
This will cause the phone to restart automatically. Wait till it is fully booted to continue.
http://tinyurl.com/yc96j2z

partylatino420 said:
I did root the phone but I am not familiar with the recovery council. I tried to search for this but was unsuccessful.
I just got my Hero last week so I am still new to all of this. Can you point me in the right direction?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Your google search didn't turn anything up on "recovery council" because the operative use would have actually been "recovery console"..

that did it!! Thanks guys!!!

um, what???
mercado79 said:
So, what I've got here is a minimal update.zip file you can apply to your phone via the recovery console.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Apply via the recovery console? Sorry, still very new to this. Thanks!

Recovery Console
Go to the recovery console by holding down home when you power your Android. In that menu, you should see something that says 'flash update from SD card'... or something like that... then you choose the .zip that he has so kindly provided us.
Oh, and you have to put the .zip file that he provided on the SD card if that isn't already obvious :/
I also renamed it update.zip once I copied it to my SD card. Hope this clears it up a little. I just rooted my Hero yesterday.. so I am on the same NOOB level.

Do I need to wipe before flashing this / will this wipe my phone if I flash it?

fallonjp said:
Do I need to wipe before flashing this / will this wipe my phone if I flash it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You shouldn't need to wipe your phone; however I really don't think it's a good idea to use this. I put this together last year when we were still running Android 1.5 so it's WAY out of date. Just go with Nfinite's ROMs. He keeps them almost completely stock (depending on which you choose) and they can serve as great back-up / go-to ROMs.

[Q] How to copy a /data file from unrooted Nexus S [I9020XXKD1]?

Hi there,
Is there a way to temporary root my Nexus S [I9020XXKD1] or alternatively a non-root way to access /data so that I can copy a file in and out? Essentially I want to be able to backup and restore some game saves
Most posts I've read basically have folks saying "Just root it", which is good advice to most but isn't right for me - I really don't want to have to wipe my phone and I'd also like to be able to dip my toe into rooting before taking a full leap. That, and aside from needing this one file in /data my phone works exactly as I'd like it to
I only need "su" access for a brief moment to copy off a file to and from /data. I set up the android sdk but ADB didn't work because of the protection of "production builds".
VISIONary seemed like the right kind of thing, but I don't believe it works for the Nexus S or recent firmware, so while temp rooting would be nice so would any solution that allows me to backup and restore some files in /data.
At the moment I am wondering if writing an apk of my own that copies/replaces this one file is the way to go - but that seems perversely long way around!
So any help/suggestions most appreciated

There is no temporary root for the Nexus S. You're either rooted, or you're not. However, if, perchance, you are on Android 2.3.2 or earlier, you might be able to root without wiping.
Without root, you cannot see the files in /data, but you can read/write the files directly if they have the proper permissions and you know the exact path/filenames. After poking around a bit, it seems that read & write permissions vary among apps. Most apps have full permissions reserved for the parent app. Some allow other apps/user to read some files, and read+write others. (The permissions being app-specific, if it can't be done by command line, I doubt it could be done by creating an app, either.)
So, what is the game? Perhaps I can do some exploring.

If you have the old bootloader (2.3.2 i think) you can boot a recovery without flashing. From you computer use "adb boot recovery.img" and boot clockwork recovery. From there you can mount and access the filysystems.
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA App

Maximilian Mary said:
There is no temporary root for the Nexus S. You're either rooted, or you're not. However, if, perchance, you are on Android 2.3.2 or earlier, you might be able to root without wiping.
Without root, you cannot see the files in /data, but you can read/write the files directly if they have the proper permissions and you know the exact path/filenames. After poking around a bit, it seems that read & write permissions vary among apps. Most apps have full permissions reserved for the parent app. Some allow other apps/user to read some files, and read+write others. (The permissions being app-specific, if it can't be done by command line, I doubt it could be done by creating an app, either.)
So, what is the game? Perhaps I can do some exploring.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks I figured as much. The game is Dungeon Hunter 2 and essentially I am trying to implement a simple fix to make my save game work again (the fix is here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1042675 a few posts down) but it requires root. So I do know the exact paths and filename.
Thank you for your helpful answer

Ok, I'm not having any luck here, and it's pissing me off. FYI, I don't have that game, so I'm testing it with Angry Birds. I can read and copy the file just fine, but I can't modify it without using root. The data file itself has read/write access, but the containing folder (files/) is read-only, so I can't overwrite the file after I've modified it. Since the file itself has r/w access, I wonder if it would work to modify the file directly, instead of using an outside program to modify it then overwriting it. (I'm a bit ignorant of the finer points of linux permissions.) This would require an app that would allow you to open and modify a file by typing the full path & filename, instead of just browsing the directory tree. You could also try < adb pull /data/data/com.gameloft.android.TBFV.GloftD2HP.ML/files/dh2_000.savegame dh2_000.savegame > (using the correct path, if that's not it). Then see if < adb push dh2_000.savegame /data/data/com.gameloft.android.TBFV.GloftD2HP.ML/files/dh2_000.savegame > works. The fact that you can copy the file out is promising, anyway. So even if you had to root, you could backup the file before rooting wipes everything, then fix it & back it up after you had root.
Btw, what version of Android are you on?
Edit: I think I'm getting somewhere. While you can't modify the file itself, you can modify the file contents. So something like this might work: < adb shell >
< more /sdcard/dh2_000.savegame > /data/data/com.gameloft.android.TBFV.GloftD2HP.ML/files/dh2_000.savegame >
So the next step is to get some help from someone who has the game and is rooted as to the exact path to the savegame file. Once we have that, I think we're golden. (Or, let me know if adb pull works with the path I guessed at.)

wow! Thank you for your help
In answer to your questions: my Nexus s is running 2.3.4 and you are correct about the file path (many other kind xda users died to bring us those paths ) is /data/data/com.gameloft.android.TB with the filename being dh2_000.savegame
I don't want to drive you to distraction! If I could back it up I probably would go ahead then and root the phone given how complexplaying with a non-rooted phone is!
I will try the adb pull method and let you know how I get on.
Thank you again for your help and for showing me why I probably do want to root!

Now that root is getting closer, PLEASE BACK UP!!

If you want to delete an app, change a file or whatever when you get root, please be smart about it. Think before you delete something. Have a plan B (a failback plan). If you don't know how you will fix whatever you're about to potentially break, DON'T DO IT.
Try to learn ADB. I know it's not for everyone, but it may pull you out of the fire later. Think before you do anything.
No matter what Android device it is, someone always has a post saying "Help! I deleted <insert app here> and I need it back!" Here are some tips:
Don't freeze or delete an app using Titanium Backup without knowing if it will crash your phone or not
If you're using ADB, rename a file instead of deleting it if you're not sure if it will crash your phone or not
Your /system folder is like the base operating system folder (think C:\Windows); before you change something BACK IT UP!
Code:
adb pull /system <destination_folder>
Since we only have temp root for now, if you're disabling packages, back up the packages.xml file
Code:
adb pull /data/system/packages.xml <destination_folder>
Learn from others' mistakes; if someone bricks their phone, read the thread and figure out how NOT to screw yourself and your phone
Heard of measure twice, cut once? Read three times, execute once. Listen to the Devs. Be nice to them. Don't piss them off. They do this on their own time.
Please be smart about whatever you do to your phone. We can't be dumb smart phone users. If you don't know something, ask in the appropriate section or thread. If you know something, don't tease others for not knowing. The occasional flame is funny and all, but at some point someone has to learn whatever they don't know - someone is going to have to step up and help them.

Thanks dawg...
I think and SD backup and Nandroid recovery backup on root will be good enough? <not condascending...just asking from your adb opinion?>

ROM_Guest said:
Thanks dawg...
I think and SD backup and Nandroid recovery backup on root will be good enough? <not condascending...just asking from your adb opinion?>
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think of that as another layer. We're not there with the Sensation yet, but I always think it's a good idea to use any and all methods best suited for what you're doing.
For example, if you're flashing a theme someone customized which could change multiple apk and jar files, a Nandroid backup is best.
When someone goes to remove an apk or freeze an app, they usually don't think to take a Nandroid backup (because deleting or freezing takes only a second - Nandroid backups take longer).
1) we don't have that functionality yet and 2) it's very common for someone to try to freeze a critical app which can cause a boot loop, which can easily be fixed by adb (if a Nandroid is not available).

i tried:
adb pull / backup/
it started building a file list and then started the copy. after a time (dont know excatly when because i let it run beside) it stoped working at:
pull: /sys/devices/platform/msm_adc/batt_id -> backup/sys/devices/platform/msm_adc/batt_id
nothing more happend. now i got 4883 files, a total of 3.1 GB, backup directory. but it seems not all files are in. when i browse through the phone dir i see much more files in the dirs.
is there any other way of getting a complete backup? when i rerun the command will it skip the files it allready dumped to disk? any other command?
thx!!!

daSn00p said:
i tried:
adb pull / backup/
it started building a file list and then started the copy. after a time (dont know excatly when because i let it run beside) it stoped working at:
pull: /sys/devices/platform/msm_adc/batt_id -> backup/sys/devices/platform/msm_adc/batt_id
nothing more happend. now i got 4883 files, a total of 3.1 GB, backup directory. but it seems not all files are in. when i browse through the phone dir i see much more files in the dirs.
is there any other way of getting a complete backup? when i rerun the command will it skip the files it allready dumped to disk? any other command?
thx!!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
All you really need is /system and /data if you want a complete backup. I know you see other files+folders, but those are mounted by the OS and kernel... or whatever. Someone with more Linux experience can explain better than I can. But if you want a complete backup, just get /system and /data.
The /system folder is like getting the base OS. The /data is all your user/personal data.

dumping /system worked fine: 1366 files pulled. 0 files skipped.
when trying to dump /data it freezes again and allways again at:
pull: /data/d/smem_log/dump_cont -> ../backup2/data/d/smem_log/dump_cont
so i dumped every dir in data manually only /data/d is missing now. but there are so many dirs in it, i dont want to dump every dir on its own
any idea?

daSn00p said:
dumping /system worked fine: 1366 files pulled. 0 files skipped.
when trying to dump /data it freezes again and allways again at:
pull: /data/d/smem_log/dump_cont -> ../backup2/data/d/smem_log/dump_cont
so i dumped every dir in data manually only /data/d is missing now. but there are so many dirs in it, i dont want to dump every dir on its own
any idea?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That should be good enough for now. No one else is doing this manually, so until we get an official root this is all you can do to backup. Once we get permanent root, titanium backup will do most of this for us.
I would only make backups of anything you change or delete at this point, but that's just me.
Sent from my HTC Sensation 4G using XDA App

EFS Folder backup?

OK so after doing some research about random rooting tips and apps and what not i stumbled on a thread on xda and part of it said the following:
"EFS Folder (Important)*Ok this is more of a you must do and not a what you can now do. So the efs folder is a very important folder within your android system that contains infomation like your IMEI number, and just well important infomation trust me it's important. When people start to mod their phone such as flashing roms, kernels e.t.c, this folder can become corrupt, making you phone usless. So backing up this folder is important and their is an easy way in which you can do this, a more user friendly way using a great app by hellcatdroid. You can get this app from google play*here(ktool), and it will give you all the tools to back up the folder. I will also include a guide on further reading for you to have a look over, so please backup your efs folder."
Everyone was mentioning the importance of backing up this file, so I was gonna try. I looked up the app but I read the description and its only compatible with some devices. Would there be a way to backup our blaze EFS folder to SD card or something?
Thanks in advance for even reading this lenghy question

For my build 1 of dknight I had back up efs as a step but everyone was confused so I took it off lol the easiest way to do it is use root explorer and copy the whole efs folder to ur sdcard and that's it
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If helped don't be afraid to hit the thanks button it doesn't bite lol

Thanks ill do that then. I hate questioning you since you obviously have more knowledge on this topic, but I also read that wasn't the best way because it didn't copy permissions or something like that?

LiveFaster said:
Thanks ill do that then. I hate questioning you since you obviously have more knowledge on this topic, but I also read that wasn't the best way because it didn't copy permissions or something like that?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's not the best way but it is the easiest way like I mentioned but if you're good with adb you can pull the folder through recovery and that way I think perms stay...either way it's better to save it like that then to not save it at all you know
----------------------------------------------
If helped don't be afraid to hit the thanks button it doesn't bite lol

Use Termimal Emulator or ADB (as su) and run this command:
busybox tar -cv -f efs.tar -C /sdcard /efs
Don't miss any spaces and remember that the command is case sensitive. You should have a file called efs.tar in /sdcard when the command completes. It should take under a second.
Using tar will preserve permissions. Just remember to pull the efs.tar file ASAP as it saves to the internal SD... if you leave it on the device there is the potential that the file will get wiped if something happens to the device.
Might be a good thing to incorporate into the update script ... automatically back it up just in case.

merwin said:
Use Termimal Emulator or ADB (as su) and run this command:
busybox tar -cv -f efs.tar -C /sdcard /efs
Don't miss any spaces and remember that the command is case sensitive. You should have a file called efs.tar in /sdcard when the command completes. It should take under a second.
Using tar will preserve permissions. Just remember to pull the efs.tar file ASAP as it saves to the internal SD... if you leave it on the device there is the potential that the file will get wiped if something happens to the device.
Might be a good thing to incorporate into the update script ... automatically back it up just in case.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm working on adding aroma and have it check if there is an efs backup if not then it'll back it up
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If helped don't be afraid to hit the thanks button it doesn't bite lol

erikmm said:
I'm working on adding aroma and have it check if there is an efs backup if not then it'll back it up
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's one of the things I miss about the Sensation. All of the ROMs used Aroma

Quick way of accessing screen to broken devices.

Hi,
So my screen broke yesterday and I needed to check my phone for missed important calls. I know there is lots of solutions out there, but I needed a way access your screen without the installation of any software on your phone. I was lucky because my digitizer still works so I can still use the touch feature and figure out on my screen where to press . I figured i would post it, might save someone someday....
Note: Works on Android 4.0 +
You need to have have developper options enabled so this can work. So first of all, I need to enable ADB from recovery. There is lots of post on the forum and google, so I will not cover this part.
Once I had ADB enabled, I wrote a small batch file that would take a screenshot from my phone, then pull it to my pc, wait 1 sec, then restart. After I used chrome and a auto-refresh extension to refresh the image every second. I will assume that you have ADB installed and all drivers for adb working. Here it goes
1. You will need to create a batch file. Open notepad and paste this into it.
Code:
:start
adb shell screencap -p /sdcard/screen.png
adb pull /sdcard/screen.png
timeout 1
goto start
Save it as ss.txt, or whatever you like. Then go to desktop and rename ss.bat or "whatever you like.bat"
This may vary a bit if you do not have an SDcard, or if your directory is not named the same way, So change SDcard to the name of your storage folder.
Copy it to your adb directory.
2. Open a Command Prompt as Admin change directories to ADB folder. Once you are there, just type ss and the batch should start.
3. Open chrome and install an auto-refresh extension. I used this one:
HTML:
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/easy-auto-refresh/aabcgdmkeabbnleenpncegpcngjpnjkc?hl=en
4.Then open your c:\ drive in chrome (type in the address bar file:///C: ). Navigate to your adb folder and open screen.png.
5. Start auto refresh on screen.png opened in chrome and set to 1 second.
Now you will have a screenshot of your phone being refreshed every second! I agree its slow, but its an easy way to get on your phone and configure other applications such as vnc or other stuff or just to get the phone number of that hot date you had last night.
Other thoughts: I your digitizer is broken, you can always just get a USB on the go adapter and plug-in a mouse and use ADB over wifi.
I guess you can also use an usb micro to hdmi adapter and plug it in to a monitor, they have them at bestbuy for 20$ if you dont want to make your life complicated.
Have Fun!

Need busybox do you not? screencap is not in my /system/xbin nor /system/bin folder

kirito9 said:
Need busybox do you not? screencap is not in my /system/xbin nor /system/bin folder
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What phone and what rom are you using? What I read is that some vendors do not include screencap in their stock rom. ..

Steph_D said:
What phone and what rom are you using? What I read is that some vendors do not include screencap in their stock rom. ..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Using Blu Dash Jr D140a, stock ROM ( Gingerbread 2.3.6)

kirito9 said:
Using Blu Dash Jr D140a, stock ROM ( Gingerbread 2.3.6)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Should of mentionned, dosen't work with gingerbread, you need 4.0+ if i recall correctly. Maybe, if your lucky, the manufacturer may have included their version instead of screencap since it did not exist back, i would take a look in the bin folder to try to find an equivalent if not you are out of luck with this method.

Steph_D said:
Should of mentionned, dosen't work with gingerbread, you need 4.0+ if i recall correctly. Maybe, if your lucky, the manufacturer may have included their version instead of screencap since it did not exist back, i would take a look in the bin folder to try to find an equivalent if not you are out of luck with this method.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OP should be updated then and here's my bin folder.

kirito9 said:
OP should be updated then and here's my bin folder.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ya, I don't believe it will be possible for you using this method. :/ Sorry Will update original post...

Steph_D said:
Ya, I don't believe it will be possible for you using this method. :/ Sorry Will update original post...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No problem, I will try on my 4.2.2 device.
EDIT: It works bro. Nice little guide of doing it manually