Develop Bugs

Understanding the HTC Hero(/android) boot process

Hi All,
I'm trying to understand the boot process of my phone, HTC Hero, before i start rooting it and putting on different ROMS etc.
From reading, as best as I can tell, the Hero has its onboard persistent storage in 3 parts: boot, system and recovery.
Is this correct? are there any more?
Is this partitioning of the storage just implemented as 3 partitions in the onboard flash? or are they in physically different flash chips? Is it possible to write to all 3 partitions? or is, say, the boot partition read only?
[HOWTO] Remove the Hero's security and CID locks talks about removing 'security and CID locks'
As i understand it, a CID lock is a check the phone does to ensure the image in flash is approved by the carrier, is this correct? Which partition(s) does it check?
What is the additional 'security' that the phone has?
Thanks in Advance

think there is also..
DATA
SPLASH1
CACHE

[Q] Device encryption - any issue with root and Odin?

I want to use Android Device Encryption (Settings --> General --> Security). My questions are:
1). Is there any issue if my device is rooted and KNOX is disabled (it's still 0x0)
2). If anything to my device and I need to Odin, I assume encryption will NOT prevent me doing so?
3). Bonus question: is there anyway to use PIN when the device is encrypted? I only see "Password" and the rest is greyed out. I don't want to use 6 characters alphanumeric password everytime I want to use my device.

1) Yes, if you're rooted with a 100% stock ROM and recovery, you CAN encrypt.
2) Sort of. It might mess up the encryption. Mine got confused thinking it was still encrypted, but couldn't mount the partition after Odin ran. To fix it, boot to STOCK recovery using the hardware keys (vol+/home/power), and do a factory reset from in there. Note that CWM/TWRP etc will NOT work to fix this issue. It's something to do with the changes Samsung made to the encryption code.
3) Nope. Password only. In theory, it might be possible to do an Xposed module, but I didn't find a good place to hook in to the process. If they would separate the encryption password from the device lock code, this would be easy. I ended up using the No Lock Home Xposed module, which lets you switch to swipe screen lock when you are connected to particular wifi/cell/BT devices.
I'm actually running without encryption now. It makes custom ROMs difficult. I believe if I were running an AOSP derived ROM it would be fine, but using modded stock stuff causes issues. Make sure you do backups to SD or a computer. If something goes wrong with the encryption there is no way to recover without a full wipe, which kills everything on the internal storage, including /sdcard. The external SD card is not affected, unless you encrypted that as well. I like the extra security, but the implementation sucks and is buggy.

{Q} Lock screen option location in SQLite

Question: I have the Dev Edition Note 4 and am looking for the lock screen fields in SQLite, since they seem to have moved. Does anyone know where they are located now?
Reason: When encrypted, as we all know and hate, you have to use a password with a special character.... That you also have to use as the lock screen... Which sucks. It would be pretty handy to have the scanner for unlocking the screen and the password for decryption on boot.
Background: On the Note 3 you could use SQLITE to change LOCKSCREEN_PASSWORD_TYPE to different codes which enabled the different types of password. For instance 131072 was for PIN. After encryption was in place I was able to change the lock screen type to PIN. However, since no PIN was used during setup it would just act as if any entries didn't match. I want to see if changing to fingerprint scanner would work since the fingerprints, or password in this case, are stored in the phone prior to the change. Hopefully making it so lock screen can be unlocked much easier while encrypted.
Thanks everyone.

Just an update to this for anyone who likes to, or needs to, have FDE enabled on their devices.
If you setup your fingerprint unlock and use a file explorer to go to data/system/ you will see three files called lockscreen.db two in which say -shm and -wal after. Copy those to the SD card.
Then make your way to Terminal Emulator and run the command pkill -KILL daemonsu . This will kill superuser. Making the FDE actually run.
After encryption is complete you can take the lock settings files saved earlier and copy (replace) them back to the data/system/ partition.
That's it. When booting you will have your strong password and be able to use the scanner for screen unlocks.
Now this only works for for device encryption. SD cards seem (?) to decrypt after the boot process and this causes them to not mount correctly. One of the times I was toying around with it the files on the SD were actually corrupted and unrecoverable. So make backups and all that if you decide to figure that out. I typically use encryption manager for things that I want to encrypt on the SD card anyway. Since I use the card in several devices.
Hope this helps anyone who wants or needs FDE on their Note 4 Devs.

Fingerprint scanner is not displaying note 4 - android 5.1.1
blubyu87gt said:
Just an update to this for anyone who likes to, or needs to, have FDE enabled on their devices.
If you setup your fingerprint unlock and use a file explorer to go to data/system/ you will see three files called lockscreen.db two in which say -shm and -wal after. Copy those to the SD card.
Then make your way to Terminal Emulator and run the command pkill -KILL daemonsu . This will kill superuser. Making the FDE actually run.
After encryption is complete you can take the lock settings files saved earlier and copy (replace) them back to the data/system/ partition.
That's it. When booting you will have your strong password and be able to use the scanner for screen unlocks.
Now this only works for for device encryption. SD cards seem (?) to decrypt after the boot process and this causes them to not mount correctly. One of the times I was toying around with it the files on the SD were actually corrupted and unrecoverable. So make backups and all that if you decide to figure that out. I typically use encryption manager for things that I want to encrypt on the SD card anyway. Since I use the card in several devices.
Hope this helps anyone who wants or needs FDE on their Note 4 Devs.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi, i have a big trouble with my note 4, i had a fingerprint lock screen with a pin pass in case of emergency; the phone just got locked with no reason and it doesn´t show me the fingerprint option and doesn`t get any pin. Im out of my phone, i don`t know what to do, i took some photos yesterday that i need for my job urgently, could you help me?

Read/modify system files through USB?

Hi, I have a stupid question: Is there any way to read and modify system files on my HTC One M8 through USB to a computer that can access them and doesn't care about file permissions? I have an annoying WiFi notifications issue that I can't disable anywhere implemented by Verizon and they lock the bootloader on 5.0.1 and I've found no safe workaround. I just want to edit the file that has this setting.
Maybe I don't know enough about the technology, but is there no program I can use on Windows or Linux that can read the memory through USB and let me change the data without it caring about permissions? If the files are not encrypted but accessible, something should be able to read them and let me edit them, as I can get Linux to read and edit any information on a Windows drive that isn't encrypted even if the user has a lockscreen password as it bypasses boot-up.
(I realize I may be sounding like an idiot as someone might have already done this if possible but maybe I haven't searched hard enough)

This would never work, since the system partition is write protected. Even if you can somehow change the system files by USB (which I think is unlikely), the changes would just revert when you rebooted. You need a kernel mod to disable the system write protection; and for that you need root.

Question Broken encryption after deleting lockscreen from TWRP

Hello, I have a little f3 running miui 14 based on Android 13 I forgot my lock pattern I tried to solve it by deleting the lockscreen file from twrp it already removed the screen lock but when I enter the device it leaves me locked, that is, when I try to open an application I get locked indicates a sign that says wait until the device is completely rebooted before opening applications failure caused by this action that I did from twrp . when accessing the security section Where it is encrypted and credentials it appears to me as encrypted and when I touch it it does nothing .I know that the solution is to make a full flash but the photos that I have inside the phone are extremely important and I don't have backup copies of them almost 30 gigabytes of family photos so I ask for any help or explanation that can help me I have advanced knowledge in this field but had never experimented with the security of Andorid 13 from Miui. logically I tried to connect it to the PC in mtp mode but it does not show me any device driver problem it is not only that the Data partition is encrypted from twrp it asks me for a password

Skyfall191299 said:
I tried to solve it by deleting the lockscreen file from twrp it already removed the screen lock
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You have access on /data through TWRP. Problem solved.

@Skyfall191299 please don't ask off-topic. you have deleted locksettings.db which contains the necessary link to synthetic password. Either restore the backup of locksettings.db and remember your pattern, or factory reset device. there is no way to decrypt userdata without pattern, not even in TWRP*
WoKoschekk said:
You have access on /data through TWRP. Problem solved.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
* only for some recent insecure MIUI ROMs with FBE or older ROMs with no FBE encryption at all.

alecxs said:
only for some recent insecure MIUI ROMs with FBE or older ROMs with no FBE encryption at all.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
He deleted /data/system/locksettings.db! With an encrypted device it's impossible to find and delete that single file on /data.

but how he deleted without knowing the pattern?

alecxs said:
but how he deleted without knowing the pattern?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
don't ask me... ask @Skyfall191299

WoKoschekk said:
You have access on /data through TWRP. Problem solved.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I mean the personal data of the mobile, not the /data path, when I enter /storage (where the user's folders are stored) nothing appears

Skyfall191299 said:
not the /data path, when I enter /storage (where the user's folders are stored) nothing appears
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Everything you stored or installed since last factory reset is stored on /data. Everything. Your /storage/emulated/0 path isn't mounted in TWRP but you have /sdcard instead. But both of those paths are only tmpfs that lead to /data/media. That's exactly that path that TWRP does not backup. It's your internal storage.

Skyfall191299 said:
Hello, I have a little f3 running miui 14 based on Android 13 I forgot my lock pattern I tried to solve it by deleting the lockscreen file from twrp it already removed the screen lock but when I enter the device it leaves me locked, that is, when I try to open an application I get locked indicates a sign that says wait until the device is completely rebooted before opening applications failure caused by this action that I did from twrp . when accessing the security section Where it is encrypted and credentials it appears to me as encrypted and when I touch it it does nothing .I know that the solution is to make a full flash but the photos that I have inside the phone are extremely important and I don't have backup copies of them almost 30 gigabytes of family photos so I ask for any help or explanation that can help me I have advanced knowledge in this field but had never experimented with the security of Andorid 13 from Miui. logically I tried to connect it to the PC in mtp mode but it does not show me any device driver problem it is not only that the Data partition is encrypted from twrp it asks me for a password
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
CC: @WoKoschekk
@Skyfall191299 In order to declutter the following thread on advice of my esteemed team mate @alecxs
[Deprecated] Universal DM-Verity, ForceEncrypt, Disk Quota Disabler [11/2/2020]
Hi all! For the past couple of months, I've been looking into making a more universal solution to disable dm-verity and forceencrypt. Needing to take different zips, modify them for different devices, and then cross your fingers when you switch...
forum.xda-developers.com
I've moved your above quoted post and other related posts out of that thread and create a new one for you in order to be able to discuss issue with broken encryption after deleting lockscreen from TWRP.
Regards
Oswald Boelcke
Senior Moderator