Develop Bugs

Cant remove Stock apps? Root Explorer and Unrevoked3

Hey Guys.
I "rooted" my HTC Desire by T-Mobile using Unrevoked3.
Then i flashed a Pre-Rooted Froyo:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=773997
Now i wanted to use the "Root Explorer" to remove Apps like "FriendStream" and stuff.
I was able to delete them, but the still keep running.
Then i rebooted and they are still there although deleted with Root Explorer and Super-User permit.
Is it possible that unrevoked is just a "*****-root" i can just use to flash Images but not for mounting /system (R/W) and removing Apps?
What can i do now? Hope u can help me

erichbitch said:
Hey Guys.
I "rooted" my HTC Desire by T-Mobile using Unrevoked3.
Then i flashed a Pre-Rooted Froyo:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=773997
Now i wanted to use the "Root Explorer" to remove Apps like "FriendStream" and stuff.
I was able to delete them, but the still keep running.
Then i rebooted and they are still there although deleted with Root Explorer and Super-User permit.
Is it possible that unrevoked is just a "*****-root" i can just use to flash Images but not for mounting /system (R/W) and removing Apps?
What can i do now? Hope u can help me
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
the desire dosent have an unlocked spl yet so even a rooted desire dosent have r/w access to /system/ when booted, there are two ways around it, either delete the apps using adb in recovery mode or flash a rom that utilises the new file overlay system that will give you r/w access to /system/

It more or less sounds like you don't understand the meaning of being root. On a system like android, running something with root or superuser permissions will normally allow the app or command to have full access and rights. This is gained by adding a binary called su and the superuser app, which is for controlling which apps gets root access. So actually unrevoked or any other root methods is not about gaining root, but about being able to put these files on the system partition, which it also does.
Now this is not the case on newer HTC handsets, because they have nand protection, which prevent write access to /system even though an app is run with root access. this is controlled by hboot, and in order to allow rw to /system, we will need an s-off hboot. This is not yet available, but the unrevoked team is working on it.
So the socalled "*****" root just shows me that you don't know, what you are talking about
edit: for now if you want to remove apps, you will need to flash a new rom, where you have removed the apk files yourself, or you will have to learn some adb commands, which you can use to edit system partition while in recovery with rw access.

Using adb in Recovery to backup/remove them is very simple (for removal i.e adb shell rm dir/name.apk) however many default apps break other workings and/or cause confusing unexpected errors if removed. I learnt first hand when removing many pre-installed apps. So be careful and always backup.
-----------------------------------
- Sent via my HTC Desire -

AndroHero said:
there are two ways around it, either delete the apps using adb in recovery mode or flash a rom that utilises the new file overlay system that will give you r/w access to /system/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How can I tell which roms utilize the new file overlay system? Im also having the same problem especially with programs starting up after I've disabled them.

shaliru said:
How can I tell which roms utilize the new file overlay system? Im also having the same problem especially with programs starting up after I've disabled them.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
We have s-off now. Look for that, or use adb.
Sent from my HTC Desire using XDA App

[GUIDE] Persistent Temp Root for G2 to SD Card

Problem: Changes to the system partition are lost when Linux flushes the disk cache: http://pastebin.com/cm75Z9UA
These instructions are a workaround to provide temp root like normal plus persistence because /system /data and /cache are partitions on your SD card. This lets you reboot and even factory reset, while being able to easily restore your settings and such by re-rooting and mounting your SD card partitions back over the internal partitions.
Prerequisites:
SD card partitioned with four partitions:
6GB as fat (for your data, can be bigger or small depending on your card size)
400MB ext3 for /system
1.3GB ext3 for /data
200MB ext3 for /cache
On the phone, enable "USB debugging" in Menu -> Settings -> Applications -> Development
On a PC with the Android SDK tools (adb) installed and working:
adb push Superuser.apk /data/local
adb push busybox /data/local
adb push rage /data/local
adb push resume /data/local
adb push root /data/local
adb push rsync /data/local
adb push setup /data/local
adb push su /data/local
adb install Term.apk
adb shell chmod 755 /data/local/busybox /data/local/rage /data/local/setup /data/local/resume /data/local/rsync /data/local/root
On the phone, open "Terminal Emulator" and type:
/data/local/rage
Wait for it to say "[+] Forked NNNN childs." then press the back button.
Open "Terminal Emulator" again and it should force close.
Open it one more time and the prompt should display "#". Then type:
/data/local/root
/data/local/setup
You may need to re-root after it reloads the GUI, but then it will stick. setup is a script that mounts your SD card partitions and copies the existing. It should only be run once unless you want to erase what you have there previously. This step wont work if you SD card is not partitioned properly.
On future power-ons, run this after temp-root instead of setup:
/data/local/resume
and you should get your Android back how it was.

is it suppose to scan through all apps on phone then reboot

Thanks muchly, I'll try this when my G2 arrives.
I have a question about this method. It looks to me that what setup does is copy the entire system, data, and cache to the SD card. Then, when you run resume, it uses rsync to bring the main system (in the onboard flash) up to date from the SDcard version, and then any changes, even if not actually written to the main system partition due to the HTC copy protection, get written to the sdcard copy of the system. Very clever (if I'm reading this write, otherwise, still clever, but me not so clever as I mis-understood).
The question is this: Are there any glitches or instabilities generated by suddenly changing the system files after the OS is already booted? Do I have to make sure to do this before I begin using my phone after boot or risk making changes that I will then loose when I run resume?
Thanks again for the work putting this together!
Sheep

Sheep, you understand almost completely. Setup does copy the existing data from the internal phone memory to the SD card. However, it then (like resume) doesn't copy anything back, it just mounts the system, data, and cache partitions from the SD card on top of the internal ones.
I had issues with the internal memory reverting back after I make changes to it. It seemed to happen over a short time, or was triggered by things like mounting the SD card to a computer.
I've been using this for about 24 hours with no problems. I've done a couple fresh boots and ran resume. But I didn't test the instructions from scratch, so if anyone tests and finds a problem, let me know!

Any performance hit because of running from SD?

I haven't really noticed any.

How does this impact battery life?
Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using XDA App

Can't say, I've had my phone hooked up most of the time through adb looking for root. Just did this for fun and because I was sick of re-rooting all the time.

looks interesting I'll try it out tomorrow
Sent from my T-Mobile G2

so your sd card has to be partitioned pryor to trying this

pre-partitioned card?
thatruth132 said:
so your sd card has to be partitioned pryor to trying this
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yes it does

texasaggie1 said:
yes it does
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
and how do i do this on a non-rooted device

thatruth132 said:
and how do i do this on a non-rooted device
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Use your G1 to partition the card.
Brad

You can also connect your phone to a Linux computer (a LiveCD would be fine) and use gparted or fdisk. Don't forget to backup the contents of your card first!

Pretty cool. But I think I'm gonna wait for a more permanent solution....

sheek360 said:
Pretty cool. But I think I'm gonna wait for a more permanent solution....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There are no roms available yet any ways, so to a non dev, non cook like me, the Root is pretty much useless

I'd read that the currently available root was good until a reboot, then I saw this thread that made rerooting after a reboot much easier. Since then I've seen some posts that seem to indicate that a root may spontaneously disappear even without rebooting. Is this the case, some permissions may be lost even if you don't reboot?
I was ready to pull the trigger on this permanent-temporary root until I read that. I'd like to be able to import my old wpa_supplicant.conf file and get my corp ipsec vpn working. I'd also like to be able to get wifi-tether working (although I rarely use it), but if root won't stay 100% until a reboot, then I'm not going to bother.

Dalamak said:
There are no roms available yet any ways, so to a non dev, non cook like me, the Root is pretty much useless
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not true. I'm not a dev or a cook, but there are things that you can make the phone do with root besides adding a theme or ROM.
wifi tether
ipsec vpn
backups
etc...

smasraum said:
I'd read that the currently available root was good until a reboot, then I saw this thread that made rerooting after a reboot much easier. Since then I've seen some posts that seem to indicate that a root may spontaneously disappear even without rebooting. Is this the case, some permissions may be lost even if you don't reboot?
I was ready to pull the trigger on this permanent-temporary root until I read that. I'd like to be able to import my old wpa_supplicant.conf file and get my corp ipsec vpn working. I'd also like to be able to get wifi-tether working (although I rarely use it), but if root won't stay 100% until a reboot, then I'm not going to bother.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
With temp root on the internal system partition, writes would revert back after certain things (after mounting the sd card to a computer through the phone and disconnecting it, I'd always loose root). When running /system from an sd card, no writes can be reverted because none are made, so I've never had to re-root.

how to partition an SD card?
thatruth132 said:
and how do i do this on a non-rooted device
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I used gparted in ubuntu to do mine. Like SAINTH said, the install disk for ubuntu is also a livecd so you dont even have to install ubuntu if u dont want to

Cannot Mount System as r/w

I have searched the entire forum and haven't found the answer to my problem...I have even asked in the rom specific thread (where other people have had a similar problems) but my question (and theirs) just gets overlooked!!
So here it is.
I have both radio S-off and the End Hboot and have flashed three different custom roms on my HD (the Core Droid, Revolution HD and LeeDroid) all giving me the same problem.....I cannot set the system as r/w using apps such as Root Explorer and SUFBS!
I tried entering the mount command by itself in a terminal on the phone and I get:
# mount
mount: no etc/mtab
I can however mount the system from adb shell by inputting: mount -o remount,rw /dev/block/mmcblk0p25 /system
but that isn't really a solution!
I have a nandroid backup of my original stock rom which I have rooted and I can mount the system fine using root explorer and do not get this 'no etc/mtab' message when I type mount in the terminal.
I find it odd that it occurs with three different custom roms but not on my original stock rom so maybe it could be the way I flash the roms? ...I always use the Full_Wipe.zip with CWM recovery which formats the boot, system, data and cache partitions and then I apply the rom.
I've been pulling my hair out over this...and I know it must be something simple, but I've been stuck with this problem with no solution for a week!
Does anyone have any ideas?
EDIT: It turns out that some of the custom roms have limits in place that prevent editing the system and therefore were causing errors. Have tried the Cyanogen rom and have not encountered the errors/restrictions so it was definitely due to those custom roms. Not really a solution, but found the 'cause' of the problem.

Hmmm....looks like I'm the only one with this problem. Has no one else had anything similar?

your not the only one, i hbave had this too, this prevents you from removing apps doesnt it, now is it the 1.72 rom or the 1.34 rom

try to download Root Tools and go to Extras and then go to MIscellaneous and select "mount system read/write". if it does not work i guess that you have an issue with phone.

if its a 1.72 rom then you wont be able to mount it, i think HTC have decided to change the mount partition or something along that line, there isnt an issue with the phone, its just HTC have plugged up the root boothole that there was.

mariosraptor said:
try to download Root Tools and go to Extras and then go to MIscellaneous and select "mount system read/write". if it does not work i guess that you have an issue with phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just tried that option and it does work as it succesfully mounts the system as r/w. However, if I go into root explorer it doesn't allow me to toggle the system as r/o....so the mount commands from my currently installed apps are not working. Could it be something to do with restoring the apps from my old Milestone onto the Desire HD using totanium backup? Actually restoring through titanium backup shouldn't be a problem since it works with the stock rooted rom.
fkofilee said:
if its a 1.72 rom then you wont be able to mount it, i think HTC have decided to change the mount partition or something along that line, there isnt an issue with the phone, its just HTC have plugged up the root boothole that there was.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've heard about that problem too....but my current rom is based on the 1.34 rom (Core Droid V1.5), so its not that...

after doing what you have to do you can go again to Root Explorer and remount as read only.
fl4r3 said:
Just tried that option and it does work as it succesfully mounts the system as r/w. However, if I go into root explorer it doesn't allow me to toggle the system as r/o....so the mount commands from my currently installed apps are not working. Could it be something to do with restoring the apps from my old Milestone onto the Desire HD using totanium backup? Actually restoring through titanium backup shouldn't be a problem since it works with the stock rooted rom.
I've heard about that problem too....but my current rom is based on the 1.34 rom (Core Droid V1.5), so its not that...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

mariosraptor said:
after doing what you have to do you can go again to Root Explorer and remount as read only.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I guess thats the best option for now...not a complete solution, but a work around that doesn't require a pc at least.
Would still be good to find the cause and fix it!

I've got the same issue! Are you sure the error you receive is 'no etc/mtab' and not 'no etc/fstab'?
Anyway I've been using the App 'Mount System (rw/ro)' as my solution for now and it works a treat. Still, as you can imagine it is not a permanent solution!
The only thing I feel may have contributed to the problem was my original root attempy via Visionary failed and I had to wait until the R13 before I could unroot and root again. Possibly something got borked along the way. Did you have any similar issues?
Will be keeping my eye on this thread and if I do find a solution I'll let you know.
Regards.

It’s definitely a ‘no /etc/mtab’ error.
When I rooted I used Visionary r14 and the only hiccup I had was that it didn’t permaroot on the first try so I had to redo it.
It’s odd that my nandroid backup of stock doesn’t give me the error and its only the custom roms that do! I have a feeling it might be something to do with an incorrect/incompatible Busybox installation with the custom roms...

sounds more app related as you can use another app to mount the system, but not with root explore. i know this is obverse an you probably done it ,have you uninstalled root explore and reinstalled from market as you said you used titanium backup.
you could copy /etc/mtab from stock an place on sdcard and paste it in the custom.
not a solution but more see if its just a file that's missing
the only file i could find was vold.fstab and my base rom is 1.72.405.3 and root explore works fine.

cattleprod said:
sounds more app related as you can use another app to mount the system, but not with root explore. i know this is obverse an you probably done it ,have you uninstalled root explore and reinstalled from market as you said you used titanium backup.
you could copy /etc/mtab from stock an place on sdcard and paste it in the custom.
not a solution but more see if its just a file that's missing
the only file i could find was vold.fstab and my base rom is 1.72.405.3 and root explore works fine.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've tried looking for /etc/mtab in my stock rom but its not present..I don't think its a physical file thats why it can't be copied....
But I think you may be right about it being an app based problem...just tried LeeDroid V1.3 (based on 1.72 rom) out of curiosity and root explorer still wasn't working. I then wiped again but installed root explorer fresh from the market instead of titanium backup and it is now working!! YAY!!
However, SUFBS still does not work and returns 'no /etc/mtab' when I type 'mount' in its terminal and reinstalling (either from titanium backup or fresh from the market) does not make a difference. Since root explorer is now working I believe that the dev for SUFBS needs to update his app maybe?..or is there still something wrong with my system?

yes sir !!! that is where your correct !!!
the current custom roms bar... Cyanogenmodm dont allow the current installed apps to be changed due to your error message.
IF YOU ARE CONFIDENT WITH ADB COMMANDS; you can have ago at pushing and pulling and mount it that way using a PC
but be very careful as you can damage your phone by doing this

fkofilee said:
yes sir !!! that is where your correct !!!
the current custom roms bar... Cyanogenmodm dont allow the current installed apps to be changed due to your error message.
IF YOU ARE CONFIDENT WITH ADB COMMANDS; you can have ago at pushing and pulling and mount it that way using a PC
but be very careful as you can damage your phone by doing this
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ahhhh, if thats true then it makes sense! Thats why the custom roms were giving me trouble but not my rooted stock rom and why adb commands from a pc work. I guess its a precaution but still an inconvenience...especially when I want to make changes/do something away from the pc.
......the question is: is it true? are you 100% sure the custom roms don't allow changes?

its 100% true, well most of the new ones anyway, CM was built from open source code and is completly there creation BUT
custom roms created from stock are basically modded ROMS

Just tried Cyanogenmod rom 6.1.2 and have had no issues at all! So it seems fkofilee is right...some of the custom roms just don't allow changes to the system.
So not really a solution but atleast found the 'cause' of the problem.

I noticed you said you used the full wipe .zip has everyone else used it ??? As I did not use it the first Rom I flashed was leedroid 1.2 and then 1.3 the only thing I used was cw recovery wipe/factory reset and my root explorer never failed can toggle between the two and when I first booted all my apps synced back via market did not use titanium backup not keen on it also I've read a few posts problems with titanium not restoring apps also read somewhere the full wipe zip doesn't always work right maybe its the wipe and titanium that causing it
Just a thought
Sent from my leedroid v1.3a DhD via xda app

I use full wipe. Zip but I never have problems with root explorer. Been using more than 1 Rom. ( Modaco r 2, leedroid 1. 3, Hd revolution. And also I have modded them a lot to look aosp.
Sent from my LeeDroided Desire HD

new to root 1st attempt, busy box finds sys/xbin full?

Hello there, having a prob finishing project. Root established w. nrt, busy box wont install....no room sys/xbin? what do I do?

Your system partition must have not enough free space. Consider making some free space there before installing busybox.

Try disabling USB debugging, for some strange reason that sometimes works
Sent from my XT1575 using Tapatalk

Thanks
I will try, like I said new to all this sys partition how do I find it, and how do I make space? Will try changing usb debugging also. Trying to learn.

In a terminal emulator do the following commands:
su
df /system
How much free space does it show?

reply
zandgreen said:
In a terminal emulator do the following commands:
su
df /system
How much free space does it show?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Says, df/system: not found
Tablet says lots of storage. one of the new programs I have said system full but other storage plenty.

You missed the space before the slash:
df /system
In any case you will need to remove some not needed apps from the system partition.

zandgreen said:
You missed the space before the slash:
df /system
In any case you will need to remove some not needed apps from the system partition.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok, didn't even notice the space but why is my system suddenly completely full? looking on phone 11 gb free but looking at one of the root programs the file busy box needs to install to xbin says completely full. Although busy box says it is installed it says xbin no storage sys no storage room, very confusing for a noob.

Try the Nexus Root Toolkit by Wugfresh, I know it's adb in a wrapper but it's very easy to use good luck.

Tmzdroid said:
Try the Nexus Root Toolkit by Wugfresh, I know it's adb in a wrapper but it's very easy to use good luck.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thats how I rooted, I did get it installed after clearing cache. Now I need to find a good kernel and rom to install. Any ideas? just want faster smoother. Not a rocket ship.
And thanks everyone for the help.

Root App Folder Permissions and Navigation

Guys, I'm having a tough time deleting a file or two that were recently installed in the root's /product folder and I guess I don't understand what I am doing wrong, or what security is in place to prevent me from doing this. I would greatly appreciate any help or suggestions here. I cannot change permissions to make the folder recursively rw. I first started with Root Explorer and Solid Explorer. Both are capable of changing permissions but failed saying it was a "system folder". I used terminal to setenforce to 0, and tried with su from terminal and could not manually change folder permissions using chmod either. I thought maybe TWRP would be the answer, so I booted recovery and tried mounting the data partition (I think it's on data) and used file manager to browse to the folder, but I cannot see the contents of the folder nor can I delete it. What am I missing here? Is the TWRP mount function busted atm? Last night I reflashed November's update with the -w thinking it might "overwrite" the folder, but there was no joy there either. I do have a couple of TWRP backups of the data folder and that is my next step. Before I apply the December image tonight, I'm going to restore the most recent /data partition backup. There has to be a way to get control of that folder and it's contents but so far it has eluded me.
Cheers and TIA.

As far as I'm aware, the only way currently to write to the product partition is to fastboot flash it. I've went as far as to modify TWRP fstab to mount it in recovery and use the file manager to replace the bootanimation only to have it either never write properly or for it to "correct" itself. Not sure which happened.
Sent from my Pixel 3 XL using Tapatalk

I appreciate the response... anything helps. Product is a folder in root also and that is what I am trying to access. Unless there is some kind of symlink linking that product folder to the product partition. I don't know. When I flashed the full image yesterday I would have thought that partition.img (nested in the zipfile) would have been flashed, too. Maybe I can try fastboot formating the product partition. Can't hurt. Thanks again!
Edit: Just found this thread where you also contributed. I'll try to flash that partition with the partition.img and see what happens. I just want to reset it to stock.

superchilpil said:
As far as I'm aware, the only way currently to write to the product partition is to fastboot flash it. I've went as far as to modify TWRP fstab to mount it in recovery and use the file manager to replace the bootanimation only to have it either never write properly or for it to "correct" itself. Not sure which happened.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I flashed product.img first and it rendered the phone unbootable... corrupt. I then went back into TWRP and wiped system and ran the flash-all script in fastboot and re-rooted. The net result is the product folder is unchanged. Everything is up and running just fine. That folder is just untouchable for me so far. Next I will format data and re-flash. I didn't fully understand what you meant about the custom kernel being the solution but so far EX is not working. May reach out to flar2 and see if he can make some kind of change to his kernel to support mounting this partition? Thanks again.

v12xke said:
I flashed product.img first and it rendered the phone unbootable... corrupt. I then went back into TWRP and wiped system and ran the flash-all script in fastboot and re-rooted. The net result is the product folder is unchanged. Everything is up and running just fine. That folder is just untouchable for me so far. Next I will format data and re-flash. I didn't fully understand what you meant about the custom kernel being the solution but so far EX is not working. May reach out to flar2 and see if he can make some kind of change to his kernel to support mounting this partition? Thanks again.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah I have yet to be able to mount the product image to modify it, but I haven't tried all that much lately. I'm pretty sure it's fixable with a kernel edit but that's beyond my ability, and even if I could I have a 8 year old laptop that wouldn't be able to build it.
What are you trying to accomplish? The bootanimation?
Sent from my Pixel 3 XL using Tapatalk

superchilpil said:
Yeah I have yet to be able to mount the product image to modify it, but I haven't tried all that much lately. I'm pretty sure it's fixable with a kernel edit but that's beyond my ability, and even if I could I have a 8 year old laptop that wouldn't be able to build it. What are you trying to accomplish? The bootanimation?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, I see boot animation in that folder, and yes we all used to use it, but this time it's just an apk from apkmirror that wrote to that system partition (don't ask me how) and now I can't uninstall or update it. com. breel.wallpapers18. I tried to uninstall it using pm uninstall, but it uninstalled it for user 0 so it remains as a system app, and not available to me. I can't uninstall it completely or upgrade... or even use it! It's just a fk'in set of Google live wallpapers I like, but now want to re-set. Waay too much time spent on this so I'm (just about) ready to flush and start over. Every year Google makes it harder for us (fans) to customize our own phones. wtf? Pissed.