Database Users

(Q) Root with Super User

So I'm rooted and downloaded Super User app from market. I have a bunch of root apps but the only app listed in the super user app is Titanium. Any reason why the other rooted apps (Set Cpu, Minfree Manager, etc.) aren't listed?

Have they asked for superuser?
Via EVO on 4G with XDA App

awenthol said:
Have they asked for superuser?
Via EVO on 4G with XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No it doesn't
Sent from my CM6 powered device

krazyflipj said:
No it doesn't
Sent from my CM6 powered device
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
We managed to fix this problem the other night on the irc channel. I didn't post anything because it doesn't seem like many people are using superuser.apk. The problem is that superuser needs to install it's own version of the su program to run properly. The current root method replaces su every reboot. When you lose the su that superuser.apk installs it can't control root access anymore and basically any program can request root without a prompt to you. The fix is to just replace the jk-su file in /system/bin/ with the superuser su. Then every reboot it will just use the one that works with the superuser app. I did this a few days ago and haven't had any problems.
The procedure is as follows (you need to use adb):
Go into the superuser app, go to the "settings" tab and at the very bottom choose to update su (it should change from saying original to something like "su v2.3.1-ef").
Plug the phone into usb and make sure you have USB debugging enabled.
Open a command prompt on the computer and goto your android sdk tools folder to run these commands (IMPORTANT NOTE - Make sure you have the phone screen on and unlocked when you run the su command below because superuser will ask you for permission and you need to click yes. It wont prompt if the screen is off or locked and the adb shell will just sit there waiting for a response. As soon as you click yes on the phone you should get a # in the adb shell):
adb shell
su
mount -t rfs -o remount,rw /dev/block/stl9 /system
cp /system/bin/su /system/bin/jk-su
exit
Now you should just reboot the phone and check that it worked by running any program that needs root access that isn't already listed with superuser. I suggest shootme or wifi tether. tether asks when you start or stop tethering and when you allow a mac address in the access control.

richse said:
We managed to fix this problem the other night on the irc channel. I didn't post anything because it doesn't seem like many people are using superuser.apk. The problem is that superuser needs to install it's own version of the su program to run properly. The current root method replaces su every reboot. When you lose the su that superuser.apk installs it can't control root access anymore and basically any program can request root without a prompt to you. The fix is to just replace the jk-su file in /system/bin/ with the superuser su. Then every reboot it will just use the one that works with the superuser app. I did this a few days ago and haven't had any problems.
The procedure is as follows (you need to use adb):
Go into the superuser app, go to the "settings" tab and at the very bottom choose to update su (it should change from saying original to something like "su v2.3.1-ef").
Plug the phone into usb and make sure you have USB debugging enabled.
Open a command prompt on the computer and goto your android sdk tools folder to run these commands (IMPORTANT NOTE - Make sure you have the phone screen on and unlocked when you run the su command below because superuser will ask you for permission and you need to click yes. It wont prompt if the screen is off or locked and the adb shell will just sit there waiting for a response. As soon as you click yes on the phone you should get a # in the adb shell):
adb shell
su
mount -t rfs -o remount,rw /dev/block/stl9 /system
cp /system/bin/su /system/bin/jk-su
exit
Now you should just reboot the phone and check that it worked by running any program that needs root access that isn't already listed with superuser. I suggest shootme or wifi tether. tether asks when you start or stop tethering and when you allow a mac address in the access control.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmmm cp /system/bin/su /system/bin/jk-su didn't work. I ls /system/bin and don't see jk-su listed just su...

krazyflipj said:
Hmmm cp /system/bin/su /system/bin/jk-su didn't work. I ls /system/bin and don't see jk-su listed just su...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What root did you use? I did mine manually so there may be some differences if you used a one click.
Edit: I just looked at noobnl's one click root and it uses the same script that contains the line:
#copies busybox su
cat /system/bin/jk-su > /sdx/su
so it should definitely be there even if you used his one click.
When you run the command "ls -l /system/bin/jk-su" what do you get?
I get this:
ls -l /system/bin/jk-su
-rwsr-sr-x root root 26264 2010-09-18 06:10 jk-su

Please delete

krazyflipj said:
Please delete
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did you get it working? After you updated su through the superuser app then it started working so that is why it asked you for permission when you were in terminal. The problem is that if you reboot without applying the rest of the fix to replace jk-su then you will lose the updated su and it will stop working.

richse said:
Did you get it working? After you updated su through the superuser app then it started working so that is why it asked you for permission when you were in terminal. The problem is that if you reboot without applying the rest of the fix to replace jk-su then you will lose the updated su and it will stop working.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey Richse, I'm trying to get this to work but it isn't.

rose1 said:
Hey Richse, I'm trying to get this to work but it isn't.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
can you give me more information, what errors are you getting or what exactly is happening?

richse said:
can you give me more information, what errors are you getting or what exactly is happening?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Okay, I did the one click root method that is stickied. Then I did
adb shell
su
after doing su, I initially saw on the phone that unknown user was asking for superuser access. Of course, "unknown user" is me so I granted it. Then I saw the # then I went ahead and did
mount -t rfs -o remount,rw /dev/block/stl9 /system
That worked fine . The line repeated itself which indicates that it worked. When I do
cp /system/bin/su /system/bin/jk-su
it then says cp: not found.
Just to give you a little more info, I just restored my phone with odin to factory defaults, then I updated to the DI07 update. Then I installed the final clockwork mod recovery, then I did the one click root method. Then I installed superuser in the system/app folder.

rose1 said:
Okay, I did the one click root method that is stickied. Then I did
adb shell
su
after doing su, I initially saw on the phone that unknown user was asking for superuser access. Of course, "unknown user" is me so I granted it. Then I saw the # then I went ahead and did
mount -t rfs -o remount,rw /dev/block/stl9 /system
That worked fine . The line repeated itself which indicates that it worked. When I do
cp /system/bin/su /system/bin/jk-su
it then says cp: not found.
Just to give you a little more info, I just restored my phone with odin to factory defaults, then I updated to the DI07 update. Then I installed the final clockwork mod recovery, then I did the one click root method. Then I installed superuser in the system/app folder.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not sure why cp doesn't work, it just means copy. An alternative to try is to delete jk-su and replace it with the su you updated. Use these commands in place of the cp command:
rm /system/bin/jk-su
cat /system/bin/su > /system/bin/jk-su
Make sure you do this after updating su in the superuser app and without rebooting in between. Let me know if you have any problems.

followed instructions. no errors but i still have no programs asking for permission. i had wifi tether downloaded before and it worked. I downloaded shootme to see if it would ask for permission and it didnt - but it works. neithe one is lited in superuser either.
listed is:
adfree / quickboot / root manager / startup manager ( 3 of them) / super manager / unknown ( spawned right after i followed instrution)
any ideas
uninstall supersuser and reinstalled:
listed apps now:
adfree / busybox installer / root explorer / rootmanager / sufbs / tit backup
again not sure is it is correct. but seems to work "I THINK"

spdwiz18 said:
followed instructions. no errors but i still have no programs asking for permission. i had wifi tether downloaded before and it worked. I downloaded shootme to see if it would ask for permission and it didnt - but it works. neithe one is lited in superuser either.
listed is:
adfree / quickboot / root manager / startup manager ( 3 of them) / super manager / unknown ( spawned right after i followed instrution)
any ideas
uninstall supersuser and reinstalled:
listed apps now:
adfree / busybox installer / root explorer / rootmanager / sufbs / tit backup
again not sure is it is correct. but seems to work "I THINK"
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When you go to update su in the superuser app does it say "original" and then change or does it stay updated after you reboot?

richse said:
When you go to update su in the superuser app does it say "original" and then change or does it stay updated after you reboot?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
what i have:
cwm 2.5.1
root 2.1.1
di07
now for the long and skinny:
i checked. went to superuser and it told me 2.3.1 -ef i then HARD rebooted, came back with no root.and superuser told be original, hard reboot again, still no root. So one more time- third time is a charm - i have root and superuser told me 2.3.1 -ef
thanks again for the help.
i think my phone might not be total stable.. lol
any ideas.
also - i thought about upping root to most recent but unsure if i need to unroot or if i can install over it. your thoughts on this matter!!!!

spdwiz18 said:
what i have:
cwm 2.5.1
root 2.1.1
di07
now for the long and skinny:
i checked. went to superuser and it told me 2.3.1 -ef i then HARD rebooted, came back with no root.and superuser told be original, hard reboot again, still no root. So one more time- third time is a charm - i have root and superuser told me 2.3.1 -ef
thanks again for the help.
i think my phone might not be total stable.. lol
any ideas.
also - i thought about upping root to most recent but unsure if i need to unroot or if i can install over it. your thoughts on this matter!!!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I doubt you need to update root. The root I used was the original manual method by joeykrim. The one click just automates that method. There is no reason why you should have to reboot multiple times to get this working. You basically just replaced a file with a similar file and the script that was installed when you rooted uses that file to create a new su every time you reboot. Personally, I would wipe to stock with Odin and then use the manual root method to make sure nothing funny is going on with your phone. When you rebooted and the su was "original" you didn't lose root, it just meant that superuser wouldn't work. For now, as long as the 2.3.1 -ef sticks around superuser will work just fine. As an alternative you could try noobnl's newest stuff. Looks like he made it compatible with superuser, so I think that would negate the need to use this type of fix. I'm not sure what he did to add the compatibility but you could probably ask him.

if you flash noobnl's latest kernel, it includes superuser and it works perfectly.

rose1 said:
if you flash noobnl's latest kernel, it includes superuser and it works perfectly.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The only issue I see with that is you have to use a DG27 kernel. If you want to use a DI07 kernel you still need to use this fix.

richse said:
The only issue I see with that is you have to use a DG27 kernel. If you want to use a DI07 kernel you still need to use this fix.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Very true. I didn't think about that.

I have latest Noobls kernel flashed on top of DI07 and this fix did not work.First thing that dint work is i never got SuperUser prompt after i typed su in adb shell,i got su in windows but no prompt on the phone.
To make it short i did the whole procedure from BetterTerminal(now i got su prompt) rebooted and back to same problem.Man,this been bugin me for two days now,sometimes i reboot the phone and i have root permissions then i reboot again and they are gone!
Big question is:is everybody on Epic have same issue or is it just on certain phones,kernels or roms?

G2 Rooting Problem

Hey all,
I would like to know, what I might have done wrong in the rooting process. I used
This Tutorial hxxp://g2hacks.com/g2-hacks/how-to-root-g2-phone/
I made it to step #18 and was stopped by this error:
Code:
/data/local/tmp/root: data/local/tmp/busybox: not found
/data/local/tmp/root: data/local/tmp/busybox: not found
Unable to chmod /system/xbin/busybox: No such file or directory
/data/local/tmp/root: /system/xbin/busybox: not found
cp: not found
cp: not found
Ideas?
Thanks,
Danny

Here is a screenshot of what I pushed to the phone:
hxxp://i.imgur.com/No1id.jpg

You have a typo in your push command for busybox (you renamed it to root instead, which then got overwritten when you pushed root). Just push busybox again.

How do I back out and enter that push command again?
What would I type?
I'm a total novice.

On your comp, just type the command again:
Code:
adb push G2TempRoot/busybox /data/local/tmp/busybox
Then on your phone, in Terminal, just run the root command again:
Code:
/data/local/tmp/root
It should complete this time.

I made a mess. Check it:
hxxp://i.imgur.com/y3NRW.jpg

You are still in the adb shell (basically creates a terminal on your phone that you can interact with on your computer).
Type "exit" to leave the shell. This will return you to the regular command prompt (instead of the $). Then try the push command again.

So now the phone terminal gives me this:
Code:
/data/local/tmp/busybox: permission denied

Oh sorry, forgot you needed to set permissions on the file. Run this command again from your computer:
Code:
adb shell chmod 0755 /data/local/tmp/*
Then it should all work fine.

The errors are getting shorter
Now I get this:
Code:
mkdir failed for /system/xbin, File exists

This error doesn't matter (it's really more of a warning in this case) and is actually expected.
You should actually be rooted if you didn't see anything else.

AND I'M ROOTED... THANK YOU!
I'm new to Android from iOS. Any ROMS you would recommend?

Danny.B said:
AND I'M ROOTED... THANK YOU!
I'm new to Android from iOS. Any ROMS you would recommend?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Congrats! And there are a few threads about this that you can read through (just search for them). If you like HTC Sense (the interface HTC adds to a lot of their phones---basically lots nice visuals and extra polish to things), you can try Virtuous. If you like the stock look that the G2 comes with, there is a stock DEODEX rom out there. By de-odexing the rom, you can do things like customize the framework (e.g., customize the status bar icons/colors or add a battery percentage to it). Lots of people here (myself included), use CyanogenMod. It's close to stock but with lots of tweaks/extras (it's based on the Android Open Source Project or AOSP). It's also nice because it has frequent updates and constant development (they recently started pushing test builds that are based on Gingerbread---the new Android update only available on Nexus S).
Now that you are rooted though, it's easy enough to install Rom Manager and test them all out. Be sure to create a backup first as well.

ROM Manager installed. I'm backed up.
Thanks again for your help.

i cant flash the engineering hboot keep getting error md5sum : not found Verification of hboot-eng.img failed i re-download the files, re-extracted them to my SD card, and ran the flash_hboot script 3x still nothing plz help but im rooted and backed up

Did not want to create a new thread so I'm posting it here.
First off, I haven't tried rooting any of my phones previously so I'm obviously making a mistake somewhere.Hope someone here can help me out.
I installed visionary+ r14 but it just blacked out the screen with a heading.I've read elsewhere that it has all to do with the new firmware updates.My update for the DZ seems to be country a specific one and came out a couple of weeks back.
Anyway,
I tried this visionary method a few times but the phone just hung and I had to go to the homescreen and uninstall Visionary and reboot to get the phone to run smoothly again.
Then I read another way of rooting the thing and it took me here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/wiki/index.php?title=HTC_Vision#Rooting_the_G2
After a couple of tries I was able to push the files to the DZ but got stuck at this command:
adb shell chmod 0755 /data/local/tmp/*
The error it gives me is:
Unable to chmod /data/local/tmp/sqlite3: operation not permitted
Strange thing is, yesterday at the same point it gave me the same error but it was 'busybox' instead of sqlite3 and right before that it was something else.Which should mean that those earlier commands were run successfully by the terminal.
P.S. Debugging mode is on.Visionary is uninstalled. followed all the steps mentioned in the guide.

Okay.So I format the phone memory and I'm now able to move a few steps ahead.
But as soon as it seems that everything is going well, the terminal emulator refuses to open at this step:
"Launch Terminal Emulator, it Force Closes. Launch a second time, and you'll have a root shell "
waited a while and there is only a blank screen showing up.

mohitanfield said:
Okay.So I format the phone memory and I'm now able to move a few steps ahead.
But as soon as it seems that everything is going well, the terminal emulator refuses to open at this step:
"Launch Terminal Emulator, it Force Closes. Launch a second time, and you'll have a root shell "
waited a while and there is only a blank screen showing up.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It looks like you are trying to root a DZ with a firmeware version >= 1.72.
If yes to have to downgrade it to 1.34 first.
See either the instructions here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=905261 or the more comprehensive at http://wiki.cyanogenmod.com/index.php?title=HTC_Desire_Z:_Rooting
But if your CID is other then the ones stated in the the first thread you need a goldcard to downgrade first, which is also described in the first thread.
have fun - Guhl

Thanks a lot for your reply and as is the case, my phones CID is HTC_38 which does not seem to be downgradable without a gold card.
I read the procedure and although its well explained, it will take a bit of time.
Will try it sometime soon hopefully, although I wish someone would just make a simple rooting app for the newer versions!

It took us month without sleep to create the existing rooting tools. So I do not see any simple rooting tools on the horizon

Manual root after EB13 update

So on my Epic 4G, I preferred to do the manual root process of using the rageagainstthecage-arm5.bin exploit and then setting up the permanent root by putting some joeykrim scripts in place (joeykrim-root.sh, jksu, and playlogo alterations). This worked perfectly for me on stock.
So I downloaded the Froyo EB13 update.zip from Samsung today and went to install it. First time failed because it wanted to patch playlogo, but I had the root version in place. So I put the original back in place (un-rooting the phone, I think), and ran the update again and it worked fine. Didn't lose any of my apps.
So I go to re-root it using my old files, and I can't get it working now. The rageagainstthecage-arm5.bin exploit still works fine, but when I put the joeykrim files in place, I don't get su back when I reboot the device. When I go to the adb shell and type su, it reports that su is not found.
c:\Android_root>adb shell
$ su
su
su: not found
Did something change where the joeykrim su replacement doesn't work anymore? Is there another manual root process? I prefer to do it manually if possible.
Thanks!

I prefer to do it manually if possible.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
why (just curious)?

I feel like I'm more in control of whats going on when I do it manual. Also, at one point I heard there is a higher potential to run into problems when doing a one click process.

[Q] Cannot Update to ICS Read only file system

Hello All,
I am in a real bind here with my Thinkpad tablet. Lets just say i should have left well enough alone. Anyway, i have the
183925U tablet with A310_02_0039_0089_US that i originally rooted. I used titanium backup to remove some apps. When i
tried to update to ICS, it failed. At the time i read some forums and they said remove root with OTA and then update and
then use OTA to get root back. Tried that and it failed. I got a brilliant idea to remove root and do a factory restore
to hopefully get ICS to load. Now i have no root, cant downlaod anything cause i cant update, cant sideload and cant get
root back.
The update fails with assert check and goes on to say Music.apk cannot be found. I looked into how to reload or even copy
that file to the system but no matter what i try i get "Read Only File System" and i cant get past this. adb push does
nothing. i can push to /data/local but cant do anything with it from there
i can do the following:
adb shell
$su
#
and from there i have tried the mount -o rw remount /system and it seems to accept the command but the system wont let me
move or copy with mv or cat to the /system directory. Is there any way i can get past this? I really just want ICS stock
no root. Please help if you can. I am new so please be gentle and if you wouldnt mind spelling out any commands for me.
Thanks to anyone who can help me. Have a nice day

Just rooted - unable to backup

Hi all,
Ive spent to weekend reading about rooting and ROMS/Kernels and decided to try it. I used a root kit found here from Mskip (great kit). Ive sucessfully rooted, and then sucessfully installed Smooth Rom 4.3 with the Motley kernel.
Ive downloaded Titanium Backup and Rom Manager. TB worked and I did a backup (which I now cant find) (i have ES File Explorer). I upgraded to Titanium Pro, and now when I open the app is states root was denied. I remember when I first opened TB SuperSu asked me to grant it access. After a reboot I opened SuperSu and stated a Binary update was necessary and performed it.
Now TB pro states root was denied, when I open SuperSu there is nothing there in the apps list, and I dont know how to manually grant TB root access.
Sorry if this is noobish, not sure what to do and I dont want to keep going without a backup.
Edit: When I try to backup in ROM Manager I hit backup, it brings up the notification to name the backup, I hit ok and nothing happens.

cam75 said:
After a reboot I opened SuperSu and stated a Binary update was necessary and performed it.
Now TB pro states root was denied, when I open SuperSu there is nothing there in the apps list, and I dont know how to manually grant TB root access.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That sort of sounds like the SuperSU "su" update might have failed. Can you get root with other apps? (e.g. go in to a terminal emulator and type "su")
Note there is a chicken-and-egg problem if (either) SuperSU/su or Superuser/su fail: they need root themselves to remount /system so that the "su" binary can be updated.
If no apps can get root, then you sort of have "lost root", and the fix is to manually insert the .apk and su binary into /system/app and /system/bin/su (or /system/xbin/su depending on flavor!) either with a flash package in recovery, or manually via the adb shell command line (with custom recovery running).
HTH
PS you should be able to just manually start the recovery and do a backup in the meantime, no? The fact that ROM manager isn't doing anything could either be a lack-of-root problem or something else (a busybox dependency?)

bftb0 said:
That sort of sounds like the SuperSU "su" update might have failed. Can you get root with other apps? (e.g. go in to a terminal emulator and type "su")
Note there is a chicken-and-egg problem if (either) SuperSU/su or Superuser/su fail: they need root themselves to remount /system so that the "su" binary can be updated.
If no apps can get root, then you sort of have "lost root", and the fix is to manually insert the .apk and su binary into /system/app and /system/bin/su (or /system/xbin/su depending on flavor!) either with a flash package in recovery, or manually via the adb shell command line (with custom recovery running).
HTH
PS you should be able to just manually start the recovery and do a backup in the meantime, no? The fact that ROM manager isn't doing anything could either be a lack-of-root problem or something else (a busybox dependency?)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thx for the quick response, however much of that is WAY over my head. I opened terminal emulator and typed su and this is what popped up. 1 [email protected]:/ $
When TB is opened it states error "sorry I could not acquire root privilegdes. this applidation will not work. please verify that your rom is rooted and try again. this attempt was made using the "/system/xbin/su" command.
I dont see busybox in my app drawer

cam75 said:
thx for the quick response, however much of that is WAY over my head. I opened terminal emulator and typed su and this is what popped up. 1 [email protected]droid:/ $
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If the SuperSU app (and companion binary) were working correctly, you should have seen one of those "Accept / Deny" pop-up messages coming from the SuperSU app... assuming that you didn't previously grant root access to that terminal emulator app. You didn't mention that happening.... ?
Also, usually the command prompt usually changes from $ to # when you have root, but not always; the explicit way to check would be to (after you have tried the "su" command) to type in "id" and hit return at the prompt - that will tell you explicitly if you are root or not. (That's the letter "i" followed by the letter "d" followed by the return key).
From the way you describe this, it is sounding like you lost root.
I gotta go watch part of the game. In the meantime, perhaps you should at least create a backup manually.
As I said, the simplest fix-up would be to get Superuser.apk/su or SuperSU/su re-installed into /system/app and /system/{x}bin/su (it seems that chainsDD and chainfire use different locations).
There might be floating around someplace a flashable zip file with this stuff in it - to be used for "lightly rooting" a stock ROM after a custom recovery is in place. But things have been in flux recently with both the SuperSU (chainfire) and Superuser (chainsDD) kits because of the JellyBean multi-user support, so the version you might need is important. So you would have to do the research to figure out where.
gotta go - good luck.

bftb0 said:
If the SuperSU app (and companion binary) were working correctly, you should have seen one of those "Accept / Deny" pop-up messages coming from the SuperSU app... assuming that you didn't previously grant root access to that terminal emulator app. You didn't mention that happening.... ?
Also, usually the command prompt usually changes from $ to # when you have root, but not always; the explicit way to check would be to (after you have tried the "su" command) to type in "id" and hit return at the prompt - that will tell you explicitly if you are root or not. (That's the letter "i" followed by the letter "d" followed by the return key).
From the way you describe this, it is sounding like you lost root.
I gotta go watch part of the game. In the meantime, perhaps you should at least create a backup manually.
As I said, the simplest fix-up would be to get Superuser.apk/su or SuperSU/su re-installed into /system/app and /system/{x}bin/su (it seems that chainsDD and chainfire use different locations).
There might be floating around someplace a flashable zip file with this stuff in it - to be used for "lightly rooting" a stock ROM after a custom recovery is in place. But things have been in flux recently with both the SuperSU (chainfire) and Superuser (chainsDD) kits because of the JellyBean multi-user support, so the version you might need is important. So you would have to do the research to figure out where.
gotta go - good luck.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks again.
Im watching Superbowl as well. I didnt grant Terminal access. I rebooted into recovery and restored to right after I rooted. SuperSu auto updated through the play store, and stated the binary need updated. I canceled that. TB and ROM manager are showing up in SuperSu. So now Im rebooting into recovery again to after I installed the Smooth Rom/Motley Kernal. I did make a backup of where SuperSu lost root. I now have three backups.
Question on installing the SuperSu apk file. I want to be sure I do it right, if needed. Download the file on my 7. it will go to my download folder. Move it to the system folder and open/run it? what do i do with the current SuperSu folder?
thanks again

I went to my restore point after root and reinstalled 4.3 Smooth ROM Mkernel. I did not take the SuperSu update, (ill wait for the next update) and everything is fine TB an ROM manager working fine, did a backup in both.
Thanks for your help on this.

cam75 said:
Question on installing the SuperSu apk file. I want to be sure I do it right, if needed. Download the file on my 7. it will go to my download folder. Move it to the system folder and open/run it? what do i do with the current SuperSu folder?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Dealing with .apk's is not that difficult - drop them into the correct place and reboot.
In Android, apps (.apk files) are stored in one of two places: /system/app or /data/app. It is even possible for two versions of an app to be on the phone - one in /system/app and one in /data/app; that is how upgrades of factory-installed apps happen: the pre-installed app is in /system/app... and never gets deleted (read-only filesystem), whereas update versions get dropped into /data/app. Generally you can just drop an .apk file into either of these locations, wipe the dalvik cache and reboot. During the android boot, these files are compiled into .dex objects in the dalvik-cache, and various version, consistency, rights and permissions are cross-checked.
Think of it this way: when you boot a new ROM for the first time, /data starts out completely empty. Everything needed to support each pre-installed app in /system/app gets created automatically during the android layer start-up.
The "su" native binary is a bit more complicated - it needs to be:
- owned by the user.group root.root
- be executable
- be setuid/setgid
Imagine that you had a copy of these two files on your "/sdcard". If you booted into the custom recovery, you could affect these changes like this:
C:\foo> adb shell
# mount # show what is already mounted
# mount /sdcard # if needed
# mount /system # if needed
# mv /system/app/SuperSU.apk /system/app/SuperSU.apk.old
# cp /sdcard/SuperSU.apk /system/app/SuperSU.apk
# mv /system/xbin/su /system/xbin/su.old
# cp /sdcard/su /system/xbin/su
# chown root.root /system/xbin/su
# chmod 6755 /system/xbin/su
# cd /
# umount /system
# exit
C:\foo>
*
As a practical matter, it is probably easier to just make sure to make a fresh backup if you are about to update the su binary - in case anything goes wrong. It might also be useful to use a root-aware file manager to remount the /system partition in rw mode prior to doing the "update su binary" procedure in the SuperSU app.
Good luck
* note that SuperSU and Superuser apps choose different locations for the su executable file - one uses /system/bin/su and the other /system/xbin/su. There might also be a symlink between these locations. Best policy is probably to examine a known-working installation to determine how to proceed.