Mods Any Way to Get Symbolic Link on Non Rooted Device?

[persistentone]

My Android phone is NOT rooted and I do not want to root it. Is there any way to attach it to a Windows PC by USB and get file system access so that I can create a symbolic link on the flash file system? Is there any way to do this from a graphical environment under Windows rather than hassling with the command line syntax?

The problem I am trying to solve is with Amazon's MP3 application. This thing is so poorly written that it gives no way to use the SDCARD to store music. My music collection is quickly filling up all of the available flash on the phone. The easy solution to this problem is to have the folder that Amazon MP3 uses secretly be a symbolic link to a folder on the SDCard. That way Amazon MP3 thinks it is using the flash drive, but the actual content in that folder is being stored on the SDCard.

Is there any way to accomplish this through a development environment on a Windows PC?

 

[JVene]

The short answer is no.

Linux enforcement of permissions is probably in your way, hence the requirement to root the phone.

I empathize with your situation. This is a design error by Google, IMO. As an engineer of 30+ year's experience, I'm disappointed even more than you at this perpetuated oversight.

Imagine if we bought a camera, added a larger SD card, only to discover that the manufacturer didn't intend for that storage images.

It would be ludicrous.

Consumers shouldn't have to fiddle with such things to get storage to function. There is some error on the part of application developers regarding this, because in your case the solution would be trivial at the application level.

The device manufacturers could address this problem in their implementations of Android, but they don't address it, perhaps because it would be somewhat non-standard Android implementation.

Google is the primary source of the error. It's a design flaw. If they addressed it you wouldn't have to root a device to fix this.

It's common to all Android devices, it's just some are more vulnerable than others.

I have a technical discussion on a solution in the LG Optimus F6 forum here http://androidforums.com/lg-optimus...ernal-sd-storage-solution-f6.html#post6406733, but like all other solutions it requires either rooting the device or installing a custom ROM (which is even more dramatic than you would permit).

 

[persistentone]

The short answer is no.

Linux enforcement of permissions is probably in your way, hence the requirement to root the phone.

I empathize with your situation. This is a design error by Google, IMO. As an engineer of 30+ year's experience, I'm disappointed even more than you at this perpetuated oversight.

Imagine if we bought a camera, added a larger SD card, only to discover that the manufacturer didn't intend for that storage images.

It would be ludicrous.

Consumers shouldn't have to fiddle with such things to get storage to function. There is some error on the part of application developers regarding this, because in your case the solution would be trivial at the application level.

The device manufacturers could address this problem in their implementations of Android, but they don't address it, perhaps because it would be somewhat non-standard Android implementation.

Google is the primary source of the error. It's a design flaw. If they addressed it you wouldn't have to root a device to fix this.

It's common to all Android devices, it's just some are more vulnerable than others.

I have a technical discussion on a solution in the LG Optimus F6 forum here http://androidforums.com/lg-optimus...ernal-sd-storage-solution-f6.html#post6406733, but like all other solutions it requires either rooting the device or installing a custom ROM (which is even more dramatic than you would permit).

Thanks for your thoughtful response. Yes, you would have to say it is Google's design failure to not give end users a way to implement a symbolic link. It is really a major oversight.

Is there a way to root the phone, and then when the symbolic link is tested and working, re-install the original unrooted OS?

 

[JVene]

Thanks for your thoughtful response. Yes, you would have to say it is Google's design failure to not give end users a way to implement a symbolic link. It is really a major oversight.

Is there a way to root the phone, and then when the symbolic link is tested and working, re-install the original unrooted OS?

The tail of your post suggest a misunderstanding about rooting...you simply remove the root feature. There's no need to re-install an OS to remove root. On the other hand, rooting is just a feature. If you setup root access but never use it, then it's almost as if you've not rooted the phone.

Almost as in, as long as some malware doesn't crawl in and use root for you

Anyway, you can uninstall root without consequence.

Links you create will stay, with a simple caveat. Root or not, there are some directories which are completely restored to "factory" content at every boot of the device. The root directory is an example (and yes, that's one word with two entirely different meanings).

This won't likely affect you, but if you experiment further you may encounter this little fact.

I suggest saferoot. Google for "adb only adb" for a short download and install of the ADB tool required (it's a small portion of the development tools).

Then Google for and download saferoot. It's the safest way to root (some root applications are downright bad).

You'll also need to visit LG.com to download the USB drivers for the phone.

If you started at 8pm, you'd be done by 8:20 if you're quick and your ISP is fairly good. 8:40 or so at the latest.

You can then establish the symbolic link(s) of interest. There are likely several that come to mind, because there no well standardized locations that every application uses. It is likely that a few more targets for symbolic links will come to mind as you use the phone and understand it more.

Yet, you can remove the root and re-apply it at any time. When the software and drivers are already installed on a PC, you can "re-root" the phone in less than 3 minutes and a reboot.

The only reason you'd need to keep root in place is if you installed something that only runs under root access (there are some).

Avoid those and you can root and unroot at will.