Database Users

Writing to /system/app...

I'm trying to push a file to /system/app but it's read-only. I know there's a command to allow me to write to it, but do I need to be rooted to do so? I'm attempting to put SprintZone.apk back in /system/app so I can update firmware. Feel free to PM me on this, too...I'm not doing so well hahaha.
Thanks,
-Rob

TheRob44 said:
I'm trying to push a file to /system/app but it's read-only. I know there's a command to allow me to write to it, but do I need to be rooted to do so? I'm attempting to put SprintZone.apk back in /system/app so I can update firmware. Feel free to PM me on this, too...I'm not doing so well hahaha.
Thanks,
-Rob
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You need to mount r/w
Sent from my Epic 4G

...
Thanks for the tip. Can you let me know the proper adb commands to get this done? Also, after I'm finished, what are the commands to unmount?
Thanks!
-Rob

TheRob44 said:
Thanks for the tip. Can you let me know the proper adb commands to get this done? Also, after I'm finished, what are the commands to unmount?
Thanks!
-Rob
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=719542
I'm not taking credit for the answer just the time it took to search for it.

TheRob44 said:
Thanks for the tip. Can you let me know the proper adb commands to get this done? Also, after I'm finished, what are the commands to unmount?
Thanks!
-Rob
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Put the file in the android sdk tools folder
Use adb commands
Adb remount
Adb push exactfilename.apk /system/app
Sent from my SPH-D700 using Tapatalk

I think its something like this...
adb shell
su
mount -t rfs -o remount,rw /dev/block/stl9 /system
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
then what I had to do was instead of the usual:
mv /sdcard/yourfile.ext /system/app/yourfile.ext
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had to type this:
busybox mv /sdcard/yourfile.ext /system/app/yourfile.ext
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
it was either MV or CP
Sorry, I am not a programmer....

None of theese work for me and i have driver installed,sdk folder im using the right path but nothing it says adb not found 8(

I'm pretty sure you can just do this:
Adb shell
Su
Remount rw
That was enough to let me edit my build.Prop when root explorer wasn't remounting correctly.
Although I would recommend root explorer for stuff like this... remounts on the epic now and it let's you Remount in the application without adb. I think it's $0.99 in the market and we'll worth it.
Sent from my superphone using the XDA App

I second the suggestion of root explorer.
Sent from my (rooted) SPH-D700 using Tapatalk

I've noticed weirdness using mv or cp sometimes even using -f.
This always worked for me without fail:
cat dir/file.ext > /system/app/file.ext
Of course, you'll need to type the proper dir(s) and file.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using Tapatalk

Thread moved to General.

What I had to type was
cd\
cd android-sdk-windows\tools
adb devices
Adb shell
Su
Then it dropped me to the #
Hope that helps. Btw, I'm running windows vista 64bit
Sent from my SPH-D700 using my fingures.

[Q] Not able to change boot animation

Im running Virtuous 1.0.1 and when i try to change my boot animation through root explorer i cant because it says im not allowed to change system files, what am i doing wrong? i see other people on youtube just change there without a problem but i cant seem to do the same.

Set system R/W in the corner?
Sent from my HTC Vision using XDA Premium App

SomEngangVar said:
Set system R/W in the corner?
Sent from my HTC Vision using XDA Premium App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
when i press that at the system/customize/resource menu nothing happens liek i didnt even touch it... and i checked superuser and it has root permissions!

So when you press the button that says "mount r/w" near the top nothing happens? It doesn't change to "mount r/o"?
Sent from my HTC Vision using XDA Premium App

Thats correct

Clearing app data does nothing as well?
Sent from my HTC Vision using XDA Premium App

flashed back to CM7 and was able to successfully change the boot image!

Or u can simply use an app on the app store called. Boot Animation Changer Lite. Once u download it you will get a folder in your sd card that says like bootamios or something. Click on stock and delete the zip file that's in there. Drag the animation u want in there the .zip file and exit. Go back to app. Click animation in bottem righht. Scroll all the way down till u see stock and done.
Sent from my HTC Vision using XDA Premium App

Just use terminal, your app might be messing up or having compatibility issues for some reason.
Code:
su
mount -o remount,rw /system
cp /location/to/bootanimation.zip /system/media
That should do it.
Example:
su
mount -o remount,rw /system
cp sdcard/zips/animate/bootanimation.zip /system/media

i think it might of had something to do with the sense rom i was running, because once i flashed back to cm7 it was a piece of cake

Is there an animation sound that goes with lets say the honeycomb boot animation?
Sent from my GT-P1000 using XDA Premium App

For everyone that s having trouble with this...just follow vandale's method.worked for me. Just gotta make sure a different directory isn't also created. If so just delete and move the.zip file to the appropiate location. It'll work just fine after that.
Sent from my GT-P1000 using XDA Premium App

JasonTCelum said:
For everyone that s having trouble with this...just follow vandale's method.worked for me. Just gotta make sure a different directory isn't also created. If so just delete and move the.zip file to the appropiate location. It'll work just fine after that.
Sent from my GT-P1000 using XDA Premium App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Glad I could help.
Sent from my HTC Vision using XDA Premium App

Surely did sir...thank you
Sent from my GT-P1000 using XDA Premium App

KCRic said:
Just use terminal, your app might be messing up or having compatibility issues for some reason.
Code:
su
mount -o remount,rw /system
cp /location/to/bootanimation.zip /system/media
That should do it.
Example:
su
mount -o remount,rw /system
cp sdcard/zips/animate/bootanimation.zip /system/media
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Since then i have flashed back to a sense rom and now i am trying to flash the vanilla mms app instead of the stock htc one. i have removed the HTc one but once again when try to mount r/w its like i didnt even push the button. it works when im not in the system folder but when in the system folder it wont allow me to press it. i have tried different root explorers but none seem to work with sense. but i know they work for other people so i dont know what to do!
edit: damn, was to high and posted in the wrong forum...

KCRic said:
Just use terminal, your app might be messing up or having compatibility issues for some reason.
Code:
su
mount -o remount,rw /system
cp /location/to/bootanimation.zip /system/media
That should do it.
Example:
su
mount -o remount,rw /system
cp sdcard/zips/animate/bootanimation.zip /system/media
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Finally! I've been trying to get this done using simply Terminal emulator for the longest time and this actually worked! Thanks again

KCRic said:
Just use terminal, your app might be messing up or having compatibility issues for some reason.
Code:
su
mount -o remount,rw /system
cp /location/to/bootanimation.zip /system/media
That should do it.
Example:
su
mount -o remount,rw /system
cp sdcard/zips/animate/bootanimation.zip /system/media
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wicked1ab said:
Finally! I've been trying to get this done using simply Terminal emulator for the longest time and this actually worked! Thanks again
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I guess I spoke too soon. this worked absolutely great when I used it with the Sense ROM however when I tried to do it with CM7 it didn't work. is there something I should change?

Are you using the boot anamation changer in the market?
Sent from my HTC Vision using XDA App

Lord_Xovon said:
Are you using the boot anamation changer in the market?
Sent from my HTC Vision using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I did once. and I've found that if I go into the bootanim folder and replace the bootanimation.zip in the stock folder, then go to boot anamation changer and tell it to run stock then it will change it to the new file however that just seems like a dumb way to go about doing it.

[Q] Unable to ADB Remount XOOM...!!

Hi..!! Everyone I tried everything, I was going to unlock and root my xoom but I got stuck at this step:
7. fastboot flash boot rootboot.img
I get this error: "can't load rootboot.img"
I run fastboot reboot command and works, after reboots I try adb devices and my xoom shows but if I run adb remount I get this error:
"remount failed: Operation no permitted"
I tried everything search everywhere, update everything and NADA, I'm on a Windows 7 64bit.
Thanks and I hope somebody can direct me to the right path..

You will want to grant root access again using the adb commands. This happened to me once. You don't have permission to do this because it needs to have root access to carry on this operation. Try the root commands again to grant root access and then see what it does when trying to flash the rootboot files.
If that's not it come let us know. XDA will have your answer for sure.
Sent from my Droid using XDA Premium App

diablo2224 said:
You will want to grant root access again using the adb commands. This happened to me once. You don't have permission to do this because it needs to have root access to carry on this operation. Try the root commands again to grant root access and then see what it does when trying to flash the rootboot files.
If that's not it come let us know. XDA will have your answer for sure.
Sent from my Droid using XDA Premium App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I get stuck on step 7 of this guide below, so I think I never get to the point of getting root, but if I'm doing something wrong and I have to run some other commands please let me know.
1. Download the Motorola Xoom Root Zip file and unzip it. Download
2. Place the files in the SDK Tools folder.
3. adb reboot bootloader (You can skip the next 3 steps if you’ve unlocked with fastboot previously)
5. fastboot oem unlock (wait for reboot)
6. adb reboot bootloader
7. fastboot flash boot rootboot.img
7. fastboot reboot (wait for reboot)
8. adb remount
9. adb shell push su /system/bin
10. adb shell ln –s /system/bin/su /system/xbin/su
11. adb shell chmod 4755 /system/bin/su
12. adb push Superuser.apk /system/app
And thanks for making some time to reply, I try to get some help on other threads with no response.

dumb question: is rootboot.img in the same directory as everything else?
It sounds to me like your flashboot can't find it.

That's a good point from the poster above. I had trouble at the start with this and the SDK tools folder because I never messed with the adb shell too often because there never really has been a need for me to do so up until I got the Xoom.
OP... like this reply says above me, I am agreeing to as well. It looks like it might not be finding your rootboot. Make sure all root files are located in the very root of the SDK tools folder, and make sure all root files are not inside a folder. If they are please drag them into the tools folder and slap them all in there. It looks like a mess but it works. Do the same type of thing if you plan on flashing an overclock kernel. Always make sure that all files are NOT in folders when flashing something like this, and that they are always placed in the very root of the tools folder located within the SDK folder. Hope this helps.
About my above post... woops. I wasn't paying attention totally. It was late. I was thinking about when you are trying to install an overclock kernel and run into this problem that says that you cannot remount in adb. It does have to do with root access though.

Thank you very much guys I found what was my problem, I was running ADB straight from CMD window without navigating to my tool folder and always worked so I thought running step 7 will work, but NO I had to cd c:.....bla bla navigate to tool folder and do step 7.
Now I'm happily Rooted thanks again for your time guys, now to set up again my beautiful screens.

I'm having that problem where i'm trying to flash Tiamat Kernel on my Xoom and when i get to the remount i'm getting - remount failed: Operation not permitted . When you say grant root access again you talking about pointing it to the platform folder ?.

It sounds like those having problems are not very familiar with adb. Don't worry, we have all been there at one point. I would suggest that you use the one click method. No its not really a one click, more like a one click at a time method. But, it goes slow and you can see what it is doing as it goes along and has a nice tutorial from the op.
Sent from my HTC HD2 using XDA Premium App

jase33 said:
It sounds like those having problems are not very familiar with adb. Don't worry, we have all been there at one point. I would suggest that you use the one click method. No its not really a one click, more like a one click at a time method. But, it goes slow and you can see what it is doing as it goes along and has a nice tutorial from the op.
Sent from my HTC HD2 using XDA Premium App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No i'm not so good at it but i'm willing to or i want to learn . I used it for the first time when my Xoom was soft brick from installing a theme , i restored it with ADB and then use ADB to root ,so that's twice , the first time i rooted my Xoom i used the one click method because i was so afraid of ADB . Today the third time i was using it to flash a Kernel and at the remount i got into the problem above .

jawonder said:
No i'm not so good at it but i'm willing to or i want to learn . I used it for the first time when my Xoom was soft brick from installing a theme , i restored it with ADB and then use ADB to root ,so that's twice , the first time i rooted my Xoom i used the one click method because i was so afraid of ADB . Today the third time i was using it to flash a Kernel and at the remount i got into the problem above .
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are you trying to push something thru a ADB...???
Sent from my Xoom using XDA Premium App

lokko21 said:
Are you trying to push something thru a ADB...???
Sent from my Xoom using XDA Premium App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes i'm trying to flash a kernel but at the remount step it's telling that : remount failed : operation is not permitted .

Any fix for this? (Picture attached)

I'm out of ideas. I've asked before but got no where. I figured a picture may help. I can root and get all the way to cm 7.0.3 but anything 1.2 update related fails. I've tried using the cwm flashable update but that fails too.
The pic is from a fresh 1.0. (I've tried 1.1 also.)
Sent from my DROIDX using XDA Premium App

USE THIS http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1000957 with a sandisk 8 gb class 4 chip.....
Call it a day.... use CM7.1 RC, its very stable.... if you need to update to nightlies, its simple as just copy the downloaded file onto the external memory card.

Yeah that is a last resort. I plan on giving that nook to my brother who is android illiterate. How did everything get borked anyway?
I bypassed the registration and my nook info looks like this
Sent from my DROIDX using XDA Premium App

OH CRAP.... looks like some sort of internal corruption....
Do a complete wipe......
THEN Do the SDCard install...
It's seemless to the user... THere is no bootup screen or anything... The nook will automatically boot to the sd first.... so he won't need to know anything...
if he is REALLY not too literate, then he can just pull the sd, and it boots into the nook.

Ok....I'm not sure what kind of SD card I have... it just says micro SD hc 4gb with a circle with a 4 in it.
So I'm assuming its a class 4 SD card...not sure the brand though
Sent from my DROIDX using XDA Premium App

oman0123 said:
Ok....I'm not sure what kind of SD card I have... it just says micro SD hc 4gb with a circle with a 4 in it.
So I'm assuming its a class 4 SD card...not sure the brand though
Sent from my DROIDX using XDA Premium App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It will work fine..... class 4 is good enough

Also if anybody knows a fix for whatever happened I would much rather do that than running off of sd
Also Thanks for the help slider. At least I know he will at least have the current cm if I can't find a fix
Sent from my DROIDX using XDA Premium App

oman0123 said:
Also if anybody knows a fix for whatever happened I would much rather do that than running off of sd
Sent from my DROIDX using XDA Premium App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did you try to wipe it? under settings?

slider2828 said:
Did you try to wipe it? under settings?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yup wont let me. Says: deregister device failed with error: user not registered (E_NOT_REGISTERED)
Sent from my DROIDX using XDA Premium App

Looks like your "ROM" got corrupted... it is a partition (/dev/mmcblk0p2) that is mounted r/w as /rom
Check and see if you have partition mmcblk0p3 and if rombackup.zip is in there...
Boot off CWM bootable uSD... then try the following:
adb shell mkdir /tmp
adb shell mount /dev/block/mmcblk0p3 /tmp
adb shell ls /tmp
if rombackup.zip is there... you're fine... we can fix it.

Wow I've been rooting for about 3 years and have never ever used adb. Crazy right? Can anybody point me in the right direction ?
Sent from my DROIDX using XDA Premium App

can that be done in terminal emulator or do I gotta go and install adb and whatever else on my computer?

term emulator would work.

DizzyDen said:
Looks like your "ROM" got corrupted... it is a partition (/dev/mmcblk0p2) that is mounted r/w as /rom
Check and see if you have partition mmcblk0p3 and if rombackup.zip is in there...
Boot off CWM bootable uSD... then try the following:
adb shell mkdir /tmp
adb shell mount /dev/block/mmcblk0p3 /tmp
adb shell ls /tmp
if rombackup.zip is there... you're fine... we can fix it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok I tried adb shell mkdir /tmp and i get mkdir: cant create directory /tmp: read only file system.
Tried adb shell mount /dev/block/mmcblk0p3 /tmp, it fails and says no such file or directory.
does this mean if I want the newest versions of cm7 I gotta do it off sd?

Arrrgh been trying all night. I hope there's still a way and its not completely borked
Sent from my DROIDX using XDA Premium App

oman0123 said:
Ok I tried adb shell mkdir /tmp and i get mkdir: cant create directory /tmp: read only file system.
Tried adb shell mount /dev/block/mmcblk0p3 /tmp, it fails and says no such file or directory.
does this mean if I want the newest versions of cm7 I gotta do it off sd?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You could still run CM7 off of EMMC... we're just trying to salvage your device specific information if there's any hope... which I truly think there is.
oman0123 said:
Arrrgh been trying all night. I hope there's still a way and its not completely borked
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry... was at work... didn't have a chance to reply...
try adb remount
before the other steps above... if you get an error then you will need to
adb shell mount -o remount,rw /dev/block/mmcblk0p5 /system
One of those two should work from CWM bootable uSD... then the steps I listed above will work... IF you have the rombackup.zip file... we'll help you through fixing your issues.

DizzyDen said:
You could still run CM7 off of EMMC... we're just trying to salvage your device specific information if there's any hope... which I truly think there is.
Sorry... was at work... didn't have a chance to reply...
try adb remount
before the other steps above... if you get an error then you will need to
adb shell mount -o remount,rw /dev/block/mmcblk0p5 /system
One of those two should work from CWM bootable uSD... then the steps I listed above will work... IF you have the rombackup.zip file... we'll help you through fixing your issues.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I got the same error messages after the remount but the "adb shell mount -o remount,rw /dev/block/mmcblk0p5 /system" seemed liked it work. it didnt say anything though

It won't give you a message saying it was successful... just try the other commands to see if you have backuprom.zip on partition 3. If its there... we can fix the issues... if not.. we have to make stuff up to fix it
You can do the same thing for partition 2 (where the device specific stuff is stored unzipped) by creating directory called tmp2 and mounting /dev/block/mmcblk0p2 to it... in that one 3 specific files you're looking for are:
DeviceID
MACAddress
SerialNumber
Those are plain text type files (but not DOS or windows formatted.. so you can view them, but don't edit them in notepad)

DizzyDen said:
It won't give you a message saying it was successful... just try the other commands to see if you have backuprom.zip on partition 3. If its there... we can fix the issues... if not.. we have to make stuff up to fix it
You can do the same thing for partition 2 (where the device specific stuff is stored unzipped) by creating directory called tmp2 and mounting /dev/block/mmcblk0p2 to it... in that one 3 specific files you're looking for are:
DeviceID
MACAddress
SerialNumber
Those are plain text type files (but not DOS or windows formatted.. so you can view them, but don't edit them in notepad)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok you are gonna have to help me with that. I wouldnt even know where to begin. We all gotta push our limits right? haha

Check your PM... give me a call if you want.
I gave you some bad commands.... this should work:
adb shell mount -O remount /remount, rw /dev/block/mmcblk0p5 /system
adb shell mkdir /system/tmp
adb shell mount /dev/block/mmcblk0p3 /system/tmp
adb shell ls -l /system/tmp
then
adb shell mkdir /system/tmp2
adb shell mount /dev/block/mmcblk0p2 /system/tmp2
adb shell ls -l /system/tmp2
OR
adb shell
mkdir /system/tmp
etc.
etc.
Since you have the rombackup.zip on mmcblk0p3 try this...
extract attached file... then run the resettofactory.cmd file... it will copy the BootCnt file to /rom and make it think its on 8th failed boot.

Permissions question

This may amount to a n00b question, but here goes: After rooting my Kindle(7.2.3), my GF decided she loved the new look and functionality of it so she wanted me to do the same. Hers was on 7.3, which made the process different, but I was able to do it successfully. I've already installed Market and Google Play, and am now trying to remove the ads by changing Dtcp_apk.apk to Dtcp_apk.bat. However, I keep getting an Operation Failed message. I realize this has to do with changing the permissions, but I can't for the life of me remember how to do it, or where exactly I read it when I rooted my personal Kindle. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

So...
Code:
adb shell su -c "mount -o remount,rw ext4 /system"
adb shell su -c "mv /system/app/dtcp_apk.apk /system/app/dtcp_apk.bak"
...doesn't work?

And now, my n00bness shall shine through. Haha. After I rooted the first Kindle(7.2.3), I only had to change the dtcp_apk.apk file to dtcp_apk.bat and it worked like a charm. The method you are describing, I am not familiar with. Is that something I do within a cmd window? I apologize for not knowing, I just didn't have to do it before...

Yes, those are entered from the command line. The first one remounts the system partition as read/write, allowing changes to be made to that partition. The second one simply renames the file so the system can't find it. The "su -c" part tells the shell to run the commands as the root user, needed on stock systems.

I'm guessing your file manager your using doesn't have full root access I use es file explorer and you go into settings root settings and check them all then you can rename that file you don't have to learn to use adb to do this...
Sent from my GT-P3110 using xda app-developers app

mrkhigh said:
I'm guessing your file manager your using doesn't have full root access I use es file explorer and you go into settings root settings and check them all then you can rename that file you don't have to learn to use adb to do this...
Sent from my GT-P3110 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
AHA!!!! This was exactly what I did the last time, but couldn't remember this time around. Worked like a charm. Thank you both for the responses and the help. :victory: