So I have been rooting phones for years. I have taken a stab at rooting the S8 tab. I used many Root Explorers. I cannot delete system files or modify them. I paid for Root Explorer since im familiar with that app. Still no luck. Any idea what I can do? Thanks for your help in advance.
GhostVengeance said:
So I have been rooting phones for years. I have taken a stab at rooting the S8 tab. I used many Root Explorers. I cannot delete system files or modify them. I paid for Root Explorer since im familiar with that app. Still no luck. Any idea what I can do? Thanks for your help in advance.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have you tried using Magisk?? Or using Traditional Root? And for what reason do you want to Delete System files, If you do by mistake delete some Critical System files, device can be in fatal situation to restore again..
Ashutosh1358 said:
Have you tried using Magisk?? Or using Traditional Root? And for what reason do you want to Delete System files, If you do by mistake delete some Critical System files, device can be in fatal situation to restore again..
Yes, im currently rooted. I tried replacing the splash screen in System/media I have tried about 5 different root explorers and gave root permission to all of them. I am very limited with this root.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Deleted
Since Android 11+ Google has been enforcing RO partitions only. So, what that basically means is that your partitions are only RO = Read Only, which means even if you have ROOT access there is no way of deleting anything from those partitions.
In order to be able to delete files from Partitions like System/Vendor/Product, etc... You would need to modify them by flashing certain scripts that repack/modify all the partitions and make them RW instead of RO. RW = Read/Write permission, so that means you would be able to delete files from those partitions.
There are certain scripts/mods floating around XDA that you could try to flash and make partitions RW but it's not guaranteed it would work especially if you're on the A13 currently since you would require TWRP to flash those scripts/mods and access to internal storage (You would need to force disable encryption so you can always access the storage inside TWRP.
I run a Magisk-less root on one device. I use a custom recovery to mount system and vendor r/w.
One thing that I learned is that (at least on mine) they were using FEC which is error correction.
I'd write a file and the changes would not be visible! They would be "corrected".
If you are root, look at the last 4096 bytes of the system or vendor partition.
If you see FECFECFE than that's what you have.
I'm only running Android 10 and I don't have a super partition.
(Note that to brute force modify system or vendor you need to modify your dtb, your fstab, maybe vbmeta.)
Thank you everyone for the help. Im glad I have some clarification now.
Related
EDIT: Fixed! Procedure I used was to download Danifunker's system dump, move it to /sdcard/ via adb push, then run the following:
Code:
adb shell
su dd if=/sdcard/mmcblk1p21.img of=/dev/block/mmcblk1p21
This completely refreshed my /system folder. Original post below:
--------------------------------------------------------------
Hello XDA forumgoers, longtime reader first time poster here. I'm currently posting because I made a few mistakes. Several mistakes, actually.
1. In my quest to de-bloat my XT860, I accidentally removed one file too many, which caused my phone to mysteriously not have a cell signal. (com.motorola.service.main kept crashing.) So I hit the forum and grabbed a system dump from this thread (thanks Willis111):
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=17501981
I had bought the phone with some version of Cyanogenmod Recovery installed by the previous owner, so I was able to use that and ADB to stick the .apks and .odex files in the /system/app folder, chmod 644 them, and even factory reset for good measure.
2. As I soon found out, I had somehow made things worse. The phone, when boot into, shows the "press android to begin" page, but com.motorola.service.main and some other apps keep FCing on me, and I can't progress past that screen. In my haste, I didn't backup any of my system folders at all, though, I still backed up my apps with Titanium.
Tl;dr:
presumably none of the /system/app apks boot, most notably com.motorola.service.main. How do I fix this? Can I?
Try to flash
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1288823
You also need to chown 0:0 both the apk and the odex
Have you tried using my original system dump? It was taken with dd, so things like symlinks and the other sort should be functional. The only caveat is that a number of apps were frozen at the time, so you may need to unfreeze them with titaniumbackup.
http://www.multiupload.com/SORQERFAYT
DoubleYouPee: Is this that chinese rom I've heard of? I heard that if I flash this, I can't root my phone. So I think I'll save this one as a last resort.
eww245: chown'd, no result.
daniflunker: how do I open this?
jonsicoli said:
DoubleYouPee: Is this that chinese rom I've heard of? I heard that if I flash this, I can't root my phone. So I think I'll save this one as a last resort.
eww245: chown'd, no result.
daniflunker: how do I open this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What about rootkeeper?
DoubleYouPee said:
What about rootkeeper?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can't get past the "click android" screen, so I probably can't install or run it. Any way to do it via adb or Cyanogenmod Recovery?
I really appreciate the help.
jonsicoli, if you want to restore your *entire* /system folder (not just apps) you would run a similar command-set as this.
1. Copy the file to the internal memory
adb push c:\path.to.folder\mmcblk1p21.img /sdcard
the file will be located in the root of the sdcard (or you could drag and drop the file in USB storage mode)
2. Do a full restore on system memory *I have not checked to ensure this is working... but a command similar to this should work
adb shell
su dd if=/sdcard/mmcblk1p21.img of=/dev/block/mmcblk1p21
- wait -
(it would have to write about 500mb and replace all of the contents of /system )
reboot
_______________________________________________________
Okay, if you just want to look at the files, you could use a linux machine to mount the filesystem (it is a standard ext3 FS) or you could do what I have done on my windows system:
Install EXT2FsD from http://sourceforge.net/projects/ext2fsd/files/latest/download?source=files
Then install OSFMount from http://www.osforensics.com/tools.html
Point the OSFMount program to the img file that you downloaded and assign it a drive then voilla!
I am pretty sure this is a bit of overkill, but this should completely restore your system close to factory (minus the APKs that were upgraded/disabled, plus the fact root was done)
Thanks Danifunker! I reset my entire /system folder, and restoring my user app backup. I'm just relieved to have my phone back. Now to mark this thread as solved.
Awesome!!!!!! Glad to hear my system dump works! Thanks for testing
My command lines were written correctly also I guess?
Sent from my XT860 using XDA App
searched for like 8 hours until i found this thread. Just what i needed, i had system image for 2.3.6 from your other post but no command.
Hello
I've got the Note 5 SM-N9208 and I am trying not to root (tripped Knox tho as I but Phillippines system.img on it) it as the annoying Barclays App doesn't work.
I am however, trying to add my custom CA certificate into the /system/etc/security/cacerts folder. This is what I used to do in my rooted devices before and worked fine.
I have flashed TWRP and taken a full backup (thank God!) and then mounted the system as RW, copied the file, rebooted and voila, boot loop on the Samsung Note 5 screen.
The only fix is to reflash the system partition from the original TAR file which makes me wonder - is there a mechanism that prevents system from being modified if the device is unrooted? Something like Samsung's system protection or something.
Could anyone try to reproduce the issue on an unrooted phone just to see if it's just me being unlucky? Or is is simply not possible to modify system without root? If so, how come TWRP allows me to do so?
Let me know what you think guys
Looking forward to hear someone else's opinion.
mateuszd said:
Hello
Let me know what you think guys
Looking forward to hear someone else's opinion.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You must be rooted to make system changes.
You need to make some changes in ramdisk : remove support_scfs,verify from the fstab files for system partition
I recently unlocked my bootloader using sunshine and installed TWRP. After rebooting into recovery, I immediately made a backup of my phone. When I plug my phone in, I can see the TWRP folder, but it shows as empty. None of my file explorers can see anything, either. TWRP, however, is able to see it when I go into the file manager. I can't get ADB to see the device when hooked up to my computer while in TWRP. MTP also doesn't work. Chmod 755 and 777 doesn't do anything. I was able to initially copy the TWRP folder into the downloads folder in the TWRP file manager, but now it just hangs there if I try to move it again.
How do I get access to my backup?
evanft said:
I recently unlocked my bootloader using sunshine and installed TWRP. After rebooting into recovery, I immediately made a backup of my phone. When I plug my phone in, I can see the TWRP folder, but it shows as empty. None of my file explorers can see anything, either. TWRP, however, is able to see it when I go into the file manager. I can't get ADB to see the device when hooked up to my computer while in TWRP. MTP also doesn't work.
How do I get access to my backup?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
http://forum.xda-developers.com/droid-turbo/help/twrp-backup-file-location-t3259060
6Binford said:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/droid-turbo/help/twrp-backup-file-location-t3259060
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Unfortunately, there aren't any solutions in that thread.
evanft said:
Unfortunately, there aren't any solutions in that thread.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There are two solutions in the first 4 posts:
ruledrbrt1 suggests http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=64048593&postcount=2
And GeoFX has the great : http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=64049328&postcount=5
Both work on my phone so they should work on yours too.
Have you given file explorer root privileges?
josephpalozzi said:
There are two solutions in the first 4 posts:
ruledrbrt1 suggests http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=64048593&postcount=2
And GeoFX has the great : http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=64049328&postcount=5
Both work on my phone so they should work on yours too.
Have you given file explorer root privileges?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I didn't even see GeoFX's post for some reason. That looks like it worked. Thanks!
TWRP and NAND Backups
I had the same question, and found the previous thread too. So what's the difference between these 2 locations?
/data/media/0/TWRP
and
/sdcard/TWRP
From my point of view, they are duplicates - same data in both folders, just duplicated into separate partitions. If this is true, then my 7.5 GB NAND backup, is really taking up 15GB of memory. Can that be true? I'm doubting it, but you never know.
I started to dive into this, because I was also wondering if NAND backups made copies of my media or not (photos, music, etc). After digging into it a bit, it looks like it does NOT make a backup of anything in the root folder "/data/media" in order to prevent it from non-stop backing up in a loop (you can't back up the location your backing up to, at the same time). This is also noted on github: https://github.com/TeamWin/Team-Win-Recovery-Project/issues/276 Logically, this would make sense since I currently have 25 GB of data in my /sdcard/ location. That's one helluva compression if you were able to get this down to 7.5GB! So I'm guessing this isn't included, which is also why I'm guessing that these are really the same. /sdcard/ must be a shortcut to the /data/media/0/ location, that's my best understanding.
So my original question still stands. What's the reason for these 2 locations, and is there a difference?
This also brings up the next question, what's the best way to make an all-encompassing backup? NAND + Titanium Backup + copy all the contents of your /sdcard/ over to your computer (or OTG drive)?
Florestan2 said:
I had the same question, and found the previous thread too. So what's the difference between these 2 locations?
/data/media/0/TWRP
and
/sdcard/TWRP
From my point of view, they are duplicates - same data in both folders, just duplicated into separate partitions. If this is true, then my 7.5 GB NAND backup, is really taking up 15GB of memory. Can that be true? I'm doubting it, but you never know.
I started to dive into this, because I was also wondering if NAND backups made copies of my media or not (photos, music, etc). After digging into it a bit, it looks like it does NOT make a backup of anything in the root folder "/data/media" in order to prevent it from non-stop backing up in a loop (you can't back up the location your backing up to, at the same time). This is also noted on github: https://github.com/TeamWin/Team-Win-Recovery-Project/issues/276 Logically, this would make sense since I currently have 25 GB of data in my /sdcard/ location. That's one helluva compression if you were able to get this down to 7.5GB! So I'm guessing this isn't included, which is also why I'm guessing that these are really the same. /sdcard/ must be a shortcut to the /data/media/0/ location, that's my best understanding.
So my original question still stands. What's the reason for these 2 locations, and is there a difference?
This also brings up the next question, what's the best way to make an all-encompassing backup? NAND + Titanium Backup + copy all the contents of your /sdcard/ over to your computer (or OTG drive)?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The way I understand it, and I might be wrong, is that before Android 4.0 (or maybe 5.0), the partition containing user data was called /sdcard and apps were stored in a separate partition. The partition where apps went was significantly smaller, which could result in people running out of space for apps while still having a ton of free user data. To remedy this, the newer version of android places apps and user data in the same partition (called media). The /sdcard that you see is a symlink (shortcut) to this new partition, and is included so that older apps that were designed to expect the /sdcard partition to be there will still work.
Hi everyone
I'm trying to get the infamous GPS Location Spoofer installed as a system app on my rooted HTC phone, but so far no luck, so I figured I would try to ask for help here, in case anyone went through a similar situation, or knows what I've been doing wrong. This is what I tried so far:
Installed the app from Google App store, and using File Explorer with root , tried to move the app folder to /system/app or /system/priv-app, , but pasting the folder there would result in an instant reboot and the app would not be there.
So I installed lucky patcher , and using apk downloader, downloaded the apk file from the App Store, copied it over to the phone, and used the "Rebuild and Install" option, choosing the option to install it as a system app , and it would process it and say that the installation was sucessfull, needs to reboot to complete, but after the reboot the app would not be there (not only not showing on the apps list, but navigating to the /system folder with File Explorer and checking app and priv-app I could verify that it was not installed).
SO I tried to use adb shell to do the work , and this is what I did:
mount -o remount /dev/block/mmcblk0p35 /system
to mount the /system filesystem as read write , and it did
cp /sdcard/Download/com.incorporateapps.fakegps.fre-55.apk /system/app
to copy the file under /system/app
chmod 644 com.incorporateapps.fakegps.fre-55.apk
to set the permissions as required
and reboot the phone, but after the reboot, the file would not be there. I tried also to create a folder under /system/app named com.incorporateapps.fakegps.fre-55, move the apk inside; installing normally , changing the mount point to read-write and moving it from /data/app to /system/app or /system/priv-app using the shell and chaning ownership / permissions , but the app will not stick , either rebooting or just re-mounting the filesystem as read-only again will cause everything that was done to be lost; and after trying any of the above one time, doing it for a second time would cause the phone to reboot.
I figure that there must be an image of the /system mount point somewhere , which gets installed every time there is a remount to read-only or reboot , or something of that nature, that will cause any changes made under /system to be lost. Maybe I'm wrong but it seems to be related to HTC phones, since there's load of people doing it on other models without issues, or maybe I'm doing something wrong, since I'm no android expert
Does anyone knows what could be the issue, or what can I do ? I searched the net quite a bit for a solution to no avail (here as well), any help is appreciated
Thanks
sasteck said:
Hi everyone
I'm trying to get the infamous GPS Location Spoofer installed as a system app on my rooted HTC phone, but so far no luck, so I figured I would try to ask for help here, in case anyone went through a similar situation, or knows what I've been doing wrong. This is what I tried so far:
Installed the app from Google App store, and using File Explorer with root , tried to move the app folder to /system/app or /system/priv-app, , but pasting the folder there would result in an instant reboot and the app would not be there.
So I installed lucky patcher , and using apk downloader, downloaded the apk file from the App Store, copied it over to the phone, and used the "Rebuild and Install" option, choosing the option to install it as a system app , and it would process it and say that the installation was sucessfull, needs to reboot to complete, but after the reboot the app would not be there (not only not showing on the apps list, but navigating to the /system folder with File Explorer and checking app and priv-app I could verify that it was not installed).
SO I tried to use adb shell to do the work , and this is what I did:
mount -o remount /dev/block/mmcblk0p35 /system
to mount the /system filesystem as read write , and it did
cp /sdcard/Download/com.incorporateapps.fakegps.fre-55.apk /system/app
to copy the file under /system/app
chmod 644 com.incorporateapps.fakegps.fre-55.apk
to set the permissions as required
and reboot the phone, but after the reboot, the file would not be there. I tried also to create a folder under /system/app named com.incorporateapps.fakegps.fre-55, move the apk inside; installing normally , changing the mount point to read-write and moving it from /data/app to /system/app or /system/priv-app using the shell and chaning ownership / permissions , but the app will not stick , either rebooting or just re-mounting the filesystem as read-only again will cause everything that was done to be lost; and after trying any of the above one time, doing it for a second time would cause the phone to reboot.
I figure that there must be an image of the /system mount point somewhere , which gets installed every time there is a remount to read-only or reboot , or something of that nature, that will cause any changes made under /system to be lost. Maybe I'm wrong but it seems to be related to HTC phones, since there's load of people doing it on other models without issues, or maybe I'm doing something wrong, since I'm no android expert
Does anyone knows what could be the issue, or what can I do ? I searched the net quite a bit for a solution to no avail (here as well), any help is appreciated
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are you using stock kernel?
donkeykong1 said:
Are you using stock kernel?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, kernel is the default that comes with the phone (3.4.10.g96cae32 , android 5.0.2)
sasteck said:
Yes, kernel is the default that comes with the phone (3.4.10.g96cae32 , android 5.0.2)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
And there's your problem. Stock kernel has system write protection, so you can't mount system as writeable. You can, but after reboot, it comes back to read only, and nothing will stick into system partition. You have 2 choices now - disable system write protection on stock kernel, or flash a custom kernel
donkeykong1 said:
And there's your problem. Stock kernel has system write protection, so you can't mount system as writeable. You can, but after reboot, it comes back to read only, and nothing will stick into system partition. You have 2 choices now - disable system write protection on stock kernel, or flash a custom kernel
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
oh I see.. didn't know about that , thanks! I'll check about disabling system write protection , otherwise look for a custom kernel, never did it before but will give it a try
donkeykong1 said:
And there's your problem. Stock kernel has system write protection, so you can't mount system as writeable. You can, but after reboot, it comes back to read only, and nothing will stick into system partition. You have 2 choices now - disable system write protection on stock kernel, or flash a custom kernel
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Shhhhhh, don't help him, he's going to steal everyone's pokemons
Sent from my HTC One using XDA Labs
alray said:
Shhhhhh, don't help him, he's going to steal everyone's pokemons
Sent from my HTC One using XDA Labs
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ooooohhh... That's why he's trying the spoofer.... If I knew, I wouldn't help at all [emoji6]
donkeykong1 said:
Ooooohhh... That's why he's trying the spoofer.... If I knew, I wouldn't help at all [emoji6]
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry you feel that way, but I appreciate the help anyway. This is something that I never tampered with before, so I still had some doubts about the process, but I am liking the whole thing and will install a custom rom on my own phone, been reading about the Ressurection rom and it looks very nice, will try it as soon as I'm better informed
sasteck said:
Sorry you feel that way, but I appreciate the help anyway. This is something that I never tampered with before, so I still had some doubts about the process, but I am liking the whole thing and will install a custom rom on my own phone, been reading about the Ressurection rom and it looks very nice, will try it as soon as I'm better informed
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That was a joke mate. I don't care what you do with your phone, but I'm here to help if I can [emoji6]
Good day,
I recently discovered malware in the root directory under the / prism folder that installed an app called Yandex into my system and contained various hidden APKs. (and files with .sogou at the end).
These manipulated my internet browser in some way and I was only able to remove them by flashing the stock rom.
Now I get the message from TWRP that the partition / prism could not be mounted. Even so, everything seems to be working fine on the device.
Now there is no more content in the / prism directory. What is usually stored there and what is its purpose?
Do I have to rework something?
I can't find an explanation anywhere else on the Internet ...
Thank you and best regards
According to https://github.com/PrismLibrary/Prism
Prism provides an implementation of a collection of design patterns that are helpful in writing well-structured and maintainable XAML applications, including MVVM, dependency injection, commands, EventAggregator, and others.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In short Prism is a framework to build applications which in turn it's built on top of another framework called Xamarin (XAML for Android).
As of why it's in the root directory I suspect is part of AppCloud, Samsung's system app, that basically does remote installation of apks.
If it is correlated to AppCloud (Big IF) then:
If you are rooted and on stock OS and have that app enabled it's not far fetched to think that there is an exploit for it out there and basically anyone could remote install any APK through root privileges and the backdoor that AppCloud system app gives the.
It's could be as easy as editing a file from within the malicious app which could change the behaviour and URL from which it fetches the needed apks. Whereas installing apks from within the malicious app needs explicit OS permissions (which AppCloud has).
I too had apps installed post-upgrade by the AppCloud system app, but I don't have root to analyse this further so all the above are just speculations based on the two things you said and my previous observations.
In the end you could have contracted the malware in a million different ways. That's how it goes with root access on OS and careless root management.
I have to admit that I was too careless with root privileges and experimented with little knowledge.
Hope that helps others to deal with it more intensively beforehand.
Your explanation helped me, the problem is a bit more serious, it is probably about corrupt security certificates in the system that are administered from outside
In this case, is it even possible to reset or delete the CA certificates? I guess I fell into a spoofing trap.
Maybe flash the stick rom again through Odin?
Is that embarrassing: D
Sorry for the graveyard post but I don't see any other threads about this.
Prism is the name of the NSA surveillance program. I guess that this is exactly that.
It's hidden because you can only see that it exists with root and most people don't have root.
I have this folder too on my rooted Galaxy Fold 4. It was already in the stock ROM and I cannot remove it because the directory is mounted as read only.
If found the mounts file (which is also read-only) and it says:
Code:
/dev/block/platform/soc/1d84000.ufshc/by-name/prism /prism ext4 ro,seclabel,relatime,i_version 0 0
I tried to give me the permission to write / delete the folder but "permission denied" ... and yes I did that as root.
Nexariuss said:
Sorry for the graveyard post but I don't see any other threads about this.
Prism is the name of the NSA surveillance program. I guess that this is exactly that.
It's hidden because you can only see that it exists with root and most people don't have root.
I have this folder too on my rooted Galaxy Fold 4. It was already in the stock ROM and I cannot remove it because the directory is mounted as read only.
If found the mounts file (which is also read-only) and it says:
Code:
/dev/block/platform/soc/1d84000.ufshc/by-name/prism /prism ext4 ro,seclabel,relatime,i_version 0 0
I tried to give me the permission to write / delete the folder but "permission denied" ... and yes I did that as root.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
did you ever find anymore about this? ive found it on two of my phones. both samsung. cant find much online about it...