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[NEWB] Installing bash,openSSH,fuse, a file manager and a terminal

Hi,
I am a new owner of an android phone (Nexus One). I am a Linux sysadmin so I had not too much trouble rooting it (with adb directly) and doing some tweaking. But I am now kind of lost when it come to finding applications. I am not interested in custom rom, I just want to customize my own phone and connect it to my ssh vpn to have remote access to my file. Later I plan to use the usb host hack, but not now.
I am not able to find how to install bash, fuse and openSSH. I really want OpenSSH and not any other implementation of SSH2. I don't really want to cross compile them, there most be someone who did it before me! I found 2 or 3 binary on google, but they don't work. Busybox work, but it is a pain, but it show that downloaded binaries can work. Where can I find those things?
I also want to know the best terminal (native terminal, not ssh client) and a good dual panel file manager with drag and drop.
I know that those questions are common, but I can not find any answer. Thanks.

anyone?....

Elv13 said:
anyone?....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Evidently not. I came across your post searching for implementations for openSSH and lsyncd in Android.

[Q] android App path

I have installed an Android Application which was developed by the friend of mine. It had installed on my Android phone (HTC G2, with Android 2.2). I need to locate the application forlders, and especially SQLite database which was created along with the application, because I need to copy it to my PC. I did seach on SD card but I did not found it, so I assume it must be on the device RAM, but I really don't know the structure and how the apps are organized. I might suspect the SQLites data filename, but that all I know at the moment.
Can somebody pint me to some utility which will allow to find the database, and the application path, and most of all to copy it to the PC ???
Thanks - Arthur

The database and any other "data" used by the app will be located in /data/data/ then inside a directory that corresponds to the app's package name. If we use the Kindle app as an example, the path to it's data would be: /data/data/com.amazon.kindle

unfortunately I checked this foldeor on RAM as well as SD and couldn't find it. device /data folder is empty, and SD gas some other stuff bot not this App.

aklisiewicz said:
unfortunately I checked this foldeor on RAM as well as SD and couldn't find it. device /data folder is empty, and SD gas some other stuff bot not this App.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I should have also said, you need to be rooted in order to see the contents of the /data directory. Without root access, it will be shown as empty because you do not have permission to view or modify. If your phone is rooted, you can use Root Explorer, Terminal Emulator, or adb to access /data and copy, modify, create, or delete files there.

Thank you for your time. That would explain why I do not see it.
OK, I have HTC G2 from T-Mobile, I think it has Android 2.2
Nothing was changed or updated on this phone since I bough it last fall. I'm not with T-Mobile anymore so I do not wat to mess up with the phone unless I'm really sure what am I doing. The only nice thing is that the phone is unlocked now. The reason I ask those questions is because I am working on some tool, which is a desktop program wchich supposed to sync SQLite data from device to the PC.
What I want to do is to connect the device through USB cable, then have it mapped is it normally does (i.e. drive H. Then access the SQLite file from the desktop application by opening the database through that link and syncing the records. Not sure but I hope this approach would work. If it cannot work that way then eventually I want to copy the SQLite dB file to the PC sync database and then copy it back to the device. I already have a desktop App which work on SQLite localy so now I want to access the device, having the same dB file residing on my android phone instead on my local HD.
What could be the reason that the installed APP doesn't want to move to SD ???
I would appreciate any suggestions...
What is required to root the phone? I've herd there are some risks. Besides I probably have to find some other solutions as none of the App users would want to root their devices (or have a knowledge how to do it).

aklisiewicz said:
Thank you for your time. That would explain why I do not see it.
OK, I have HTC G2 from T-Mobile, I think it has Android 2.2
Nothing was changed or updated on this phone since I bough it last fall. I'm not with T-Mobile anymore so I do not wat to mess up with the phone unless I'm really sure what am I doing. The only nice thing is that the phone is unlocked now. The reason I ask those questions is because I am working on some tool, which is a desktop program wchich supposed to sync SQLite data from device to the PC.
What I want to do is to connect the device through USB cable, then have it mapped is it normally does (i.e. drive H. Then access the SQLite file from the desktop application by opening the database through that link and syncing the records. Not sure but I hope this approach would work. If it cannot work that way then eventually I want to copy the SQLite dB file to the PC sync database and then copy it back to the device. I already have a desktop App which work on SQLite localy so now I want to access the device, having the same dB file residing on my android phone instead on my local HD.
What could be the reason that the installed APP doesn't want to move to SD ???
I would appreciate any suggestions...
What is required to root the phone? I've herd there are some risks. Besides I probably have to find some other solutions as none of the App users would want to root their devices (or have a knowledge how to do it).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Took me a bit to get back to you but figure better late than never...
Here is a good FAQ on rooting among other things specific to the G2(the US variant of the Desire Z). In order to root your G2, this guide looks to be good as he's simplified and automated a good bit of the process, should be safe, and seems to work. You'll need to install the two apps he mentions in step 1 and download the zip file he mentions in step 2 which is attached at the bottom of the post then just follow the instructions.
As for the database stuff, if you end up needing to access the /data directory you'll have to be rooted. Also, moving the app to the sdcard won't really help you with having access to the app's files. Froyo built-in App2SD just moves the apk file to a hidden directory on /sdcard (.android_secure) but the app data, cache and all that stuff will still be on internal memory. But to answer why the app won't move to the sd card, I'm guessing it's because the app itself must allow for it to be moved since by default, an app doesn't have this enabled unless the app dev gives it that ability.
To communicate with the phone, even with root access, you'll probably have to do so through adb commands or use an adb shell to be able to run shell commands on the phone. This would require adb be set up on the user's computer. If you want to play around with adb, there's a nice guide called ADB for Noobs that goes through setting it up and starting out using it. I can't say I've really done anything with SQLite databases on Android and certainly not then syncing it to a computer so I could be off-base or overlooking a workaround.

Thank you for your valuable information. You guys are really great help, and I appreciate your time. I will study the links provided.
In the meantime my main concern is to access SQLite database, as I need to get to the records, or at least be able to copy it back and forth between device an PC. I guess the database file would be something like MyDatabase.db , but I have no cule how to find it and copy it. As you have said it might be in some system protected directory. The main issue is that I will ne a solution which would work on every standard device (no the rooted one), so I need something very easy for the user to setup and follow. I have seen a utility that allow to manipulate SQLite records directly on device, but again thsi tools requires to root the phone (which I'm reluctant to do) because ot the above reasons. If you could help my to resove this I would be very graceful!
Arthur

aklisiewicz said:
Thank you for your valuable information. You guys are really great help, and I appreciate your time. I will study the links provided.
In the meantime my main concern is to access SQLite database, as I need to get to the records, or at least be able to copy it back and forth between device an PC. I guess the database file would be something like MyDatabase.db , but I have no cule how to find it and copy it. As you have said it might be in some system protected directory. The main issue is that I will ne a solution which would work on every standard device (no the rooted one), so I need something very easy for the user to setup and follow. I have seen a utility that allow to manipulate SQLite records directly on device, but again thsi tools requires to root the phone (which I'm reluctant to do) because ot the above reasons. If you could help my to resove this I would be very graceful!
Arthur
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Unless there is some trick I don't know about you are going to have to be rooted to get access to the database. I found a couple links discussing this: here and here. The second link does mention that the app with the database you want to access could be written to store the database on the sdcard where it would then be accessible but that would be unsecure since anything could read/modify it there.

Thanks, looks like I have to do more research on my own. It is hard to believe for me that Google would not allow to access the same database from different Apps. I've seen there is a Java class ContentProvider which seems to allow that, so I will study this, perhaps it will help. Thank for you help.
Arthur

[Q] Android questions

I'm new to Android and have a few question that didn't get answered by trying to Google it. I have bought my first Android phone (A Samsung Galaxy S2, after years of being a Symbian fanboy), but have not received it yet.
1. Does everything run on top of Dalvik JVM? At the bottom is the Linux kernel. Then there is a Linux process which runs Dalvik VM. Could for instance Sun's JVM run on a Linux process of its own or another Linux application?
2. Can C/C++ Linux program run on Android? Though compiled for ARM. Android has NDK (Native Development Kit) which allows it to run C/C++ applications inside Android applications, but I'm wondering about running C/C++ applications directly on Android. BusyBox is coded in C, but runs on Android. Is it running directly on the kernel's linux process or within an Android application on Dalvik?
3. The latter(Q2) would indicate that not everything run on top of Dalvik. Otherwise C/C++ programs would not run.
4. Android uses ADB (Android Debug Bridge) for its CLI magic. BusyBox uses Ash. Can one install bash as the default shell, with full GNU Core Utilities commands? Some forum posts indicate that it is possible to install an ARM re-compiled bash version.
5. Android can be rooted by installing applications like Super User or BusyBox that would let the user execute applications as root. That would indicate that there exist a root user, in addition to the actual user. Is this similar to how it is on Linux? Can I define a password for the root user so that no applications can run root directly?
Edit: Seems each application is a different user on the system.
6. Are all user data stored in the database SQLite that are stored on the phone? User data is accessible through different applications, but how does Android determine access rights to it?
7. I have read that Android applications run on their own Linux process and are assigned a unique user ID. Does this mean that we can run ps to see all running processes or does it act like the Sun JVM just showing each VM process? However looks like different applications can run in the same process. Can these be distinguished or do we just the the once process.
8, Is the camera application (that some have made modifications of) a Google app or Samsung app? Just wondering since the former would allow such modified versions to run on other than Samsung phones, but given that different phones have different camera specs I don't see how this could go well.
9. Can the codes typed in the dialer be executed through a shell instead (adb)?
10. Can I get an overview of permissions given to applications? Can they be revoked after once granted?

i have question,too.thanks

Ill Be back with most of your answers. Im on my phone. Ill be at a comp in few.
Sent from my Incredible using Tapatalk

I'm also wondering about how the methods of rooting works.
Some offers rooting by means of a modified kernel.
Another method entails using programs like SuperOneClick or GingerBreak.
Can anyone describe to me what exactly does these methods do?
In order to have root I guess the user root needs to be created/activated/enabled on the phone. Also programs like su and Superuser needs to be installed, perhaps with Busybox.
Those are the methods for root, but I want to know what needs to be done on the phone in order to root it.
Can I root my device (Samsung Galaxy S2) manually without any modified kernels or special programs?

DJViking said:
10. Can I get an overview of permissions given to applications? Can they be revoked after once granted?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can see the permissions an app has through Settings->Apps->Manage Apps i think. There are also apps on the market summarising that.
Revoking or granting only certain permissions is not available natively.
I believe they are working on that in cyanogenmod.
Revoking a needed permission will usually make the app in question crash.
DJViking said:
8, Is the camera application (that some have made modifications of) a Google app or Samsung app? Just wondering since the former would allow such modified versions to run on other than Samsung phones, but given that different phones have different camera specs I don't see how this could go well.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you have a samsung device, the camera app will be from samsung.
It is not impossible to have the google camera app running on your device, it might need some tinkering though (see cyanogenmod).
DJViking said:
7. I have read that Android applications run on their own Linux process and are assigned a unique user ID. Does this mean that we can run ps to see all running processes or does it act like the Sun JVM just showing each VM process? However looks like different applications can run in the same process. Can these be distinguished or do we just the the once process.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes you can, here is the about from running "ps" on my i9000 : http://pastie.org/2089555
Only apps from the same developer ( meaning signed with the same signature), can be run in the same process. This is not default and only happens when the developer requests it. This is not very common.
DJViking said:
6. Are all user data stored in the database SQLite that are stored on the phone? User data is accessible through different applications, but how does Android determine access rights to it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Through the android permission system.
PHP:
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.READ_SMS"></uses-permission>
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.WRITE_SMS"></uses-permission>
will be needed to read and write from/to the sms database.

[Q] Improving Android with Package Manager & more.

Hey!
I own a Samsung S3 i9300 for about an year and used it with the vendors operating system. As i have some spare time at the moment, i want to invest some of it in improving my phone.
In the last three days i tried "slimbean" (www.slimroms.net/‎) and CyanogenMod (http://www.cyanogenmod.org/).
I have gained some experience with GNU/Linux especially Arch (i really appreciate the philosophy of Arch) and Openwrt over the years, but Android is mostly unknown to me.
With this in mind, i do not feel very comfortable on my phone, as it (from my point of view) tries to hide whats going on. What i saw so far (stock, slimbean & cm) they show me shiny GUI's but i have no way to understand whats really going on.
For instance configuration: Until now, i only saw graphical frontends for configuring my phone. Is there something like a /config dir (as in openwrt) where i get an overview?
Second example: Until now, i have not seen an easy to understand command line tool for package managing.
What i want:
Find people who miss similar stuff on their phones as i do. May you have already made some discoveries/have recommendations for me and i for myself can post my "discoveries".
The first steps:
1) to have no propietary stuff on my phone
2) one can use a phone without a google-account
3) to have a serious package manager (as on a desktop linux system), which i can use on a console (pacman, opkg).
4) having an home dir where all the personal data is saved in the same place
My ideal:
-A secure operating system for a phone
-An easy-to-understand user management
-to have a versatile package manager and repository
-rolling release
What i did so far:
3) As an alternative to the google play store i found Fdroid (https://f-droid.org/). Fdroid comes my ideal closer, but i still have no way to use it with command line and some important tools command line tools are missing. Next, came to BotBrew (botbrew.com/) but atm it doesnt work on my device...
And i seriously need sshfs on my phone. Is there a package manager which is able to compile packages?
For the rolling release thing i found on xda-developers two related, but unanswered posts:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1807061
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2281413

[GUIDE][HOWTO] Setup 2way-sync over WiFi using Unison

There are a lot of howtos about pulling/pushing content over wifi around. Taking adb or AirDroid may be reliable for common use, but i was looking for a real two-way-sync without utilizing a cloud, also i wanted not too much 3rd Party-Software involved, neither on my box nor at my phone.
Although Unison is platform-independant and can be run from Windows, i'm focussing on the Linux part (coz i've got no Windows box to test). I won't go deeper into things like howto install the required applications on your box. You won't have to compile anything, precompiled binaries should be available for your distro. Guess pacman, yum and apt-get will do their job, but if in doubt, Google will lead the way.
Requirements
A rooted device
SSHDroid installed on your Android
OpenSSH, SSHFS and Unison properly installed on your Box
SSH
After ensured the requirements above, you should be able to ssh to your android device. It's ip is shown by SSHDroid.
Code:
ssh [email protected]<yourdeviceip>
First connect will take some time, coz ssh will handshake your device and save the fingerprint. After the connect succeeded, you will be easily able to connect your device anytime over wifi.
SSHFS
SSHFS allows us to mount the whole android device to a mountpoint on your box. Compare it like a external harddisk you plug into your box usb.
First we'll create a directory in our home and then mount the device into it.
Code:
mkdir wifidroid && sshfs [email protected]<your device ip>:/sdcard/ ~/wifidroid/
SSHFS will ask for your root password anytime you try to connect. If not configured different within SSHDroid, it will be admin. You're ought to change it for safety reasons. After above steps, your device is mounted into wifidroid. You can easily browse the contents using your preferred linux filemanager (like dolphin or nautilus). To unmount device, use fusermount -u ~/wifidroid/ later.
UNISON
Unison will handle the syncing between your box and your device. It comes with an cli and even with a gui. Whatever you will use is up to your personal preference.
First of all we're going to create the unison profile directory and a basic example profile for syncing pictures.
Code:
mkdir ~/.unison && touch pictures.prf
Open pictures.prf with your preferred editor (nano, vi, kate, gedit, orwutevah) and write down some config stuff.
Code:
root=/home/<username>/Pictures
root=/home/<username>/wifidroid/Pictures
path=Friends
path=Landscape
path=Misc Stuff
perms=0
ignore=Name .*~
ignore=Name *~
ignore=Name .*
The first root=/home/<username>/Pictures points to your local pictures directory, whereas the second one, root=/home/<username>/wifidroid/Pictures points to the pictures-folder at your mounted android device. Unison syncs recursevly, so it would simply sync anything beneath the directory Pictures. If you want to sync only some Subfolders, use path=Friends i. e. to include Pictures/Friends. You may edit this to your own convince. We don't want unison to set permissions on synced files, so we set perms=0. Rest should be self explanatory.
Okay, now just fire up unison with unison pictures for cli-version, or unison-gtk pictures for the gui-version and syncing should begin.
Keep in mind that, depending on your wifi speed, it will take a huge amount of time to sync a whole mp3/picture library for the first time. After first sync things should be butter smooth
Above example is just a basic profile. You can easily use unison to backup your whole device, or, as i do, make regular backups of your Camera-Roll, WhatsApp and Threema Backups. If you wanna go deeper into this, you should take a look at the Unison Reference Guide.

Genericxx said:
There are a lot of howtos about pulling/pushing content over wifi around. Taking adb or AirDroid may be reliable for common use, but i was looking for a real two-way-sync without utilizing a cloud, also i wanted not too much 3rd Party-Software involved, neither on my box nor at my phone.
Although Unison is platform-independant and can be run from Windows, i'm focussing on the Linux part (coz i've got no Windows box to test). I won't go deeper into things like howto install the required applications on your box. You won't have to compile anything, precompiled binaries should be available for your distro. Guess pacman, yum and apt-get will do their job, but if in doubt, Google will lead the way.
Requirements
A rooted device
SSHDroid installed on your Android
OpenSSH, SSHFS and Unison properly installed on your Box
SSH
After ensured the requirements above, you should be able to ssh to your android device. It's ip is shown by SSHDroid.
Code:
ssh [email protected]<yourdeviceip>
First connect will take some time, coz ssh will handshake your device and save the fingerprint. After the connect succeeded, you will be easily able to connect your device anytime over wifi.
SSHFS
SSHFS allows us to mount the whole android device to a mountpoint on your box. Compare it like a external harddisk you plug into your box usb.
First we'll create a directory in our home and then mount the device into it.
Code:
mkdir wifidroid && sshfs [email protected]<your device ip>:/sdcard/ ~/wifidroid/
SSHFS will ask for your root password anytime you try to connect. If not configured different within SSHDroid, it will be admin. You're ought to change it for safety reasons. After above steps, your device is mounted into wifidroid. You can easily browse the contents using your preferred linux filemanager (like dolphin or nautilus). To unmount device, use fusermount -u ~/wifidroid/ later.
UNISON
Unison will handle the syncing between your box and your device. It comes with an cli and even with a gui. Whatever you will use is up to your personal preference.
First of all we're going to create the unison profile directory and a basic example profile for syncing pictures.
Code:
mkdir ~/.unison && touch pictures.prf
Open pictures.prf with your preferred editor (nano, vi, kate, gedit, orwutevah) and write down some config stuff.
Code:
root=/home/<username>/Pictures
root=/home/<username>/wifidroid/Pictures
path=Friends
path=Landscape
path=Misc Stuff
perms=0
ignore=Name .*~
ignore=Name *~
ignore=Name .*
The first root=/home/<username>/Pictures points to your local pictures directory, whereas the second one, root=/home/<username>/wifidroid/Pictures points to the pictures-folder at your mounted android device. Unison syncs recursevly, so it would simply sync anything beneath the directory Pictures. If you want to sync only some Subfolders, use path=Friends i. e. to include Pictures/Friends. You may edit this to your own convince. We don't want unison to set permissions on synced files, so we set perms=0. Rest should be self explanatory.
Okay, now just fire up unison with unison pictures for cli-version, or unison-gtk pictures for the gui-version and syncing should begin.
Keep in mind that, depending on your wifi speed, it will take a huge amount of time to sync a whole mp3/picture library for the first time. After first sync things should be butter smooth
Above example is just a basic profile. You can easily use unison to backup your whole device, or, as i do, make regular backups of your Camera-Roll, WhatsApp and Threema Backups. If you wanna go deeper into this, you should take a look at the Unison Reference Guide.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks will try

Nice job mate. I will try it.

Thanks @Genericxx, it looks complicated at first, but after reading a while it makes complete sense,
For anyone who wants an easier way for syncing between PC windows and Android, i'd recommend ES File Explorer and Goodsync (on windows PC)
First enable FTP Remote manager in ES through a WiFi same with ur PC windows. Then open Goodsync and setup a sync wizard and choose FTP and then the ip address from ES on the Right (destination)sync folder.

It works great on the Note 2 and it is awesome app! 5 star on market and thanks here.

No need to be root
Great guide, thanks a lot!
I have two things to add.
1. You do not need to root your Android device to use SSHDroid.
2. As the user of a non-rooted device, I ran into the problem of permissions when using unison. The solution:
Apart from having the
perms = 0
line in your .prf file, also add
dontchmod = true
So, my file looks like this:
Code:
perms=0
dontchmod = true
root=/home/<username>/Pictures
root=/home/<username>/wifidroid/Pictures
ignore=Name .*~
ignore=Name *~
ignore=Name .*
Placing "perms=0" and "dontchmod = true" at the beginning of the file may be important (I read it somewhere), but maybe it is not.
And it works nicely with my non-rooted device. Thanks again!

Check also UnisonSync:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.danielroggen.unisonsync
It's a Unison client for Android with GUI.
The advantage of unison client (rather than server) on the answer Android device is that you can connect to your server even if your shoe Android device is on a different subnet or behind a firewall (as long as your server is accessible of course).
Cheers,
D.