[aklug] Re: Rooting an Android Motorola Flipside from the Linux command line.

Hey everybody, say "hi" to my brother Weston! Unlike me, he actually
has money to spend and can buy hardware to play around with. He acts
very humble, but he probably knows about 10x as much as I do now about
Android, electronics, and embedded development. He is also a former
Navy Submariner, and a current Simulator Tech. Ask him how much he
loves working with ancient versions of Red Hat!

On Wed, 31 Dec 2014 07:51:21 -0900
WestonandSuzy Howard <westonandsuzyhoward@gmail.com> wrote:

> Greetings to the AKLUG from the new guy!
> While speaking with my brother about my recent cell phone escapade,
> he recommended that I join and pass this along to your group. I can
> only imagine the collective level of competence and intelligence here,
> so I apologize for cluttering up your in-boxes with my simpleton
> thoughts and ways, but here it goes. (Remember, new guy, don't hate,
> be nice.)
>
> Exposition:
> So for the entirety of my life as an adult, I've only used dumb cell
> phones, as apposed to smart ones. This was not a problem until all of
> my friends and most of my relatives started texting. So then I was
> forced to get a cell phone with a keyboard so I could respond
> intelligently. Recently, I've become fed up with paying for minutes
> and data, so I decided to change to a plan that was unlimited, and
> also purchased a neat little (okay, really cheap) smart phone, the
> Motorola Flipside, unlocked. Don't knock it, I needed a keyboard and
> thought I'd try a smart phone, albeit an older one. Did I mention it
> was really cheap?
> But alas, while it was great in some ways, it seemed restrictive, as
> it would not download and use this particular app that I wanted to put
> on it. Thus started my rooting adventure.
>
> Rising Action:
> So I needed a way in. After a little research, I found that I could
> use Android Development Bridging Tools (adb) from the command line.
> You guys and gals are probably very technical, and way smarter than
> me, so please don't laugh too hard, but I will share all the gory
> details.
> Using Debian Wheezy, I found that there is no support for adb from
> the main repository, so I added Wheezy-Backports to my sources.list
> file:
>
> # echo "deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ wheezy-backports main" >>
> /etc/apt/sources.list
> # echo "deb-src http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ wheezy-backports
> main" >> /etc/apt/sources.list
>
> Of course:
>
> # aptitude update
> # aptitude search android |grep adb
>
> i android-tools-adb - Android Debug Bridge CLI tool
>
> # aptitude install android-tools-adb
>
> Now that I had the tools, I went ahead and read the --help, and tried
> to use it, after plugging in the USB cable to my phone:
>
> # adb devices
> List of devices attached - but it was blank!
>
> Hmm....
>
> # lsusb
> -other stuff-
> Bus 001 Device 004: ID 22b8:41da Motorola PCS
>
> After some research, I realized that I needed some rules for this
> device, and found that one guy did something similar for his nook. I
> stole what he did, but changed it for my phone.
>
> # touch /etc/udev/rules.d/99-android.rules
> To create the file.
> # echo "SUBSYSTEM==usb, ATTR{idVendor}==22b8, MODE=0666, OWNER=user #
> motorola" >> /etc/udev/rules.d/99-android.rules
> # service udev restart
>
> Now it shows up:
> # adb devices
> List of devices attached
> 040140601001801A device
>
> Whoo-hoo! I knew I was cooking now!
> I set the phone for debugging with Application > Development > USB
> debugging. I read online that this would allow me to use the adb
> program to "push" things onto the phone.
>
> Climax:
> I then researched a suitable rooter for my phone. Turns out it was
> well supported by Z4Root.apk and all I needed to do was get it onto
> the phone. So I downloaded it. Went to that directory and:
>
> # adb install Z4Root.apk
> blah-blah KB/s
> pkg: /data/local/tmp/Z4Root.apk
> Success
>
> Nice! So, I disconnect the USB cable, and ran z4root by clicking on
> the app icon. Ran for about 2 minutes, rebooted, and then said I was
> rooted! Very simple, very nice, but then I thought, how do I use it?
>
> Falling action:
> I then used adb to install busybox installer, an app that lets me
> choose which version of busybox to install, and as most of you know
> (shoot, you guys and gals probably wrote it) allows me to have many
> more Linux commands and attributes on my phone.
> Upon first try, I tried the latest and greatest that was available
> from the app, 1.22, but it failed to install, so I chose 1.20, and it
> installed successfully.
> I also got the Superuser app, I say got, because it simply appeared,
> probably comes from the z4root process, which allows me to set su
> permissions for apps on the phone.
> I then used the android market app to download terminal app.
> Now, when I open the terminal app, I can type su and it pops up a
> dialog stating terminal app has super user permissions. I now have
> access to the entire system files and many use full tools and
> commands.
>
> Denouement:
> You are very patient for having stuck through this rambling thread so
> long, but I promise, it is almost over.
> I then was able to search through the files and found the
> /data/data/com.android.providers.settings/databases/settigs.db is a
> database file with the settings in it.
> # cp /data/data/com.android.providers.settings/databases/settigs.db
> /sdcard/settings.db
> To grab the file, then, after moving it to the computer:
> # sqlite3 settings.db
> .tables
> .dump security
> update security set value=1 where name='install_non_market_apps';
> update security set value=0 where name='force_only_market_apps';
> exit
>
> Viola, then I put it back. Then I had many errors when trying to
> download from the internet. Then it would fail when parsing an apk
> file.
> Hmm...
> Ah.... Some online searching revealed that I needed to also update
> these files in a similar manner (albeit they are plain text, very easy
> to edit):
> /system/etc/motorola/com.android.providers.settings/system.mkitso
> /system/etc/motorola/com.android.providers.settings/secure.mkitso
> /system/etc/motorola/com.motorola.android.providers.settings/settings.mkitso
>
> While changing lines like:
> install_non_market_apps from 0 to 1
> and
> force_only_market_apps from 1 to 0
>
> And there we have it! Unfortunately, the app I originally wanted to
> install was made for a newer build of Android, so it didn't work
> anyways, with a code of:
>
> # adb install com.foxfi-APK4Fun.com.apk
> 2230 KB/s (210759 bytes in 0.092s)
> pkg: /data/local/tmp/com.foxfi-APK4Fun.com.apk
> Failure [INSTALL_FAILED_OLDER_SDK]
>
> But that is an obstacle for another post, another time. That is,
> unless you guys and gals boot me off for clogging up your in-boxes.
>
> Happy New Year!
> -Weston Howard
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>

-- 
Christopher Howard
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