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Help Apps installed before root cannot detect root

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Rjw4688

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I recently rooted my Galaxy S5 (running 6.0.1) and it went fine. SuperSU is working, Busy box is installed, and every app I've downloaded since rooting has been granted SuperSU access easily. However, the apps I installed before rooting cannot detect the root. I usually get a message along the lines of "this feature requires root access" or "root not found." There is no prompt to grant the apps root access. I've tried uninstalling and reinstalling the apps and rebooting my phone several times and nothing has helped.
 
Welcome to AF :).

Can you see anything in the SuperSU app (log, etc.) showing the state/status of the apps that are reporting "root not found"?

It kind of sounds like they're on the "deny" list in SuperSU...

Have you also tried uninstalling and re-installing SuperSU from the Play Store?
 
Op here. Checked the logs and saw nothing. Uninstalled and reinstalled SuperSU and that didn't fix it either. I did notice that the root is system-less. Would that matter?
 
robertjw4688 said:
Op here. Checked the logs and saw nothing. Uninstalled and reinstalled SuperSU and that didn't fix it either. I did notice that the root is system-less. Would that matter?
Click to expand...

Not sure...I wouldn't think so...you flashed the "normal" UPDATE-SuperSU-v##.zip file, correct?

There is (I believe) a trace/logging feature/function in SuperSU that you can enable, but I don't have access to all my root stuff here so I can't get back w/you re. that until later tonight.

edit: it might also be helpful to view a logcat of any messages that su and/or SuperSU might be logging

Also, it may be that those particular root apps are NOT (yet) SE ready? Can you list the apps in question or confirm that one or more are well-known and widely-used?
 
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scary alien said:
Welcome to AF :).

Can you see anything in the SuperSU app (log, etc.) showing the state/status of the apps that are reporting "root not found"?

It kind of sounds like they're on the "deny" list in SuperSU...

Have you also tried uninstalling and re-installing SuperSU from the Play Store?
Click to expand...
You can also go to superSU, select your app and select Grant under "Access Type" instead of uninstalling SuperSU..
 
robertjw4688 said:
I used the root file found here: http://www.androidinfotech.com/2016/05/root-samsung-galaxy-s5-sm-g900p-sprint.html?m=1

I checked the SuperSU logs and found nothing relating to the apps I need rooted. I installed CatLog but cannot figure out how to only display the logs related to supersu.

The apps I'm trying to give access to are Rom Manager and Connection Stabilizer Booster
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info...I'm not at all Odin-savvy for Samsung devices and normally install root through flashing Chainfire's .zip file via custom recovery.

Google/Android locked-down the APIs for logcat so that only rooted apps can see everything (chicken and egg thing here, LOL).

If you're familiar with and can use adb you can basically get a full logcat by invoking "adb shell logcat > mylogcat.txt" from your PC.

Alternatively, you can install Terminal Emulator for Android and also fire-up a logcat and redirect it to a file on your SD card from the prompt:

logcat -d > /sdcard/mylogcat.txt​

Hmm, ROM Manager hasn't been updated since January 1, 2014!!! If Koush was invoking su from /system/xbin then it's it certainly possible that that app would not work or be granted root permissions. This is because su no longer lives in /system when you've got systemless root installed.

There's a work-around that will fix this and I'm pretty sure that it's covered in Chainfire's big BETA thread over at XDA...I'll try to hunt it down for you but I've got a few things I need to tackle (I just got home a little while ago :p).

eshieldsvx4 said:
You can also go to superSU, select your app and select Grant under "Access Type" instead of uninstalling SuperSU..
Click to expand...

Yeah, I thought that having him start with a clean slate would remove some variables from the equation :).
 
The only apps SuperSu shows are the ones that have already been granted access (unless I'm missing something)

I'm honestly not too worried about Rom Manager. The only reason I wanted it was so I could install CWM. But I don't really need Rom Manager to do that (oddly, I just got this phone 2 days ago as a replacement for a broken phone and it appears to have CWM already installed. Yet, it won't boot into it when I try to boot into recovery. But that's another topic lol)

I really appreciate your time trying to help me :)
scary alien said:
Thanks for the info...I'm not at all Odin-savvy for Samsung devices and normally install root through flashing Chainfire's .zip file via custom recovery.

Google/Android locked-down the APIs for logcat so that only rooted apps can see everything (chicken and egg thing here, LOL).

If you're familiar with and can use adb you can basically get a full logcat by invoking "adb shell logcat > mylogcat.txt" from your PC.

Alternatively, you can install Terminal Emulator for Android and also fire-up a logcat and redirect it to a file on your SD card from the prompt:

logcat -d > /sdcard/mylogcat.txt​

Hmm, ROM Manager hasn't been updated since January 1, 2014!!! If Koush was invoking su from /system/xbin then it's it certainly possible that that app would not work or be granted root permissions. This is because su no longer lives in /system when you've got systemless root installed.

There's a work-around that will fix this and I'm pretty sure that it's covered in Chainfire's big BETA thread over at XDA...I'll try to hunt it down for you but I've got a few things I need to tackle (I just got home a little while ago :p).



Yeah, I thought that having him start with a clean slate would remove some variables from the equation :).
Click to expand...
 
robertjw4688 said:
I really appreciate your time trying to help me :)
Click to expand...

No problem...sorry for the delay in replying from earlier today.

I pulled-out my Nexus 5 that was rooted with BETA-SuperSU-v2.65-20151226141550.zip (not the current version by any stretch) and of course, "su" now lives in /su/bin/su since I it is indeed systemless root.

I was able to install and run ROM Manager (at least a minor function that asked for root permission).

It may be that the symbolic link that I have for /system/xbin/su that points to /su/bin/su is what is making it work.

Do you have a /system/xbin/su file and/or is it a symlink to /su/bin/su?

You can check this with an "ls -l /system/xbin/su" command at an adb or Terminal Emulator for Android shell prompt (or from a suitable file explorer).
 
tube517 said:
What particular apps did you install before root that cannot access root now?
Click to expand...

Connection Stabilizer Booster and Rom Manager

I have an update though: Both apps randomly asked for access to root, even though I wasn't using them. I granted them both access but it didn't do anything. I'm still unable to use them and I still keep getting error messages from them saying I'm not rooted.
 
If you are missing the symlink from /system/xbin/su to /su/bin/su, then you should be able to create it like this:

- from an adb shell prompt or Terminal Emulator for Android prompt

$ su
# mount -o remount,su /system
# ln -s /su/bin/su /system/xbin/su
# ls -l /system/xbin/su
lrwxrwxrwx root root 2016-07-20 22:11 su -> /su/bin/su
# exit
$ exit

edit: just saw your reply above, try the above and see if that fixes your issues.
 
robertjw4688 said:
Connection Stabilizer Booster and Rom Manager
Click to expand...
You mentioned in your first post that you tried reinstalling the apps so just wondering when you uninstalled them did you also hit the 'Clear data' button? Maybe there's some config file that needs to be wiped so clearing the data and cache might make a difference.
 
scary alien said:
If you are missing the symlink from /system/xbin/su to /su/bin/su, then you should be able to create it like this:

- from an adb shell prompt or Terminal Emulator for Android prompt

$ su
# mount -o remount,su /system
# ln -s /su/bin/su /system/xbin/su
# ls -l /system/xbin/su
lrwxrwxrwx root root 2016-07-20 22:11 su -> /su/bin/su
# exit
$ exit

edit: just saw your reply above, try the above and see if that fixes your issues.
Click to expand...
I'm a newbie when it comes to this sort of thing. Do I hit Enter after each line? Why are the lines in the middle purple? Lol. Sorry...
 
robertjw4688 said:
I'm a newbie when it comes to this sort of thing. Do I hit Enter after each line? Why are the lines in the middle purple? Lol. Sorry...
Click to expand...

Ah, no worries...here's the clif notes:
  • "$" is the non-rooted shell prompt
  • "#" is the prompt you'll see when you are running a rooted shell (i.e., after/as a result of typing "su")
  • the text in blue should be entered exactly as shown and enter should be pressed after typing or pasting
  • the text in purple is the output that you should see (or something very similar)
:)
 
scary alien said:
Ah, no worries...here's the clif notes:
  • "$" is the non-rooted shell prompt
  • "#" is the prompt you'll see when you are running a rooted shell (i.e., after/as a result of typing "su")
  • the text in blue should be entered exactly as shown and enter should be pressed after typing or pasting
  • the text in purple is the output that you should see (or something very similar)
:)
Click to expand...
Tried this and this was the result:
 

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robertjw4688 said:
Tried this and this was the result:
Click to expand...

@robertjw4688, it kind of looks like you had some typos (missing whitespace (i.e., spaces) and a "." (period) instead of a comma (",")) in the commands that I see on the screen shot.

Can you copy and paste them instead of typing?

If not (no biggie), here's the same commands with more whitespace to show the proper separation:

Code: 
$ su
# mount  -o  remount,su  /system
# ln  -s  /su/bin/su  /system/xbin/su
# ls  -l  /system/xbin/su
lrwxrwxrwx root root 2016-07-20 22:11 su -> /su/bin/su
# exit
$ exit
edit: dangit, the forum software squished them out...lemme add code tags instead. Note that the "remount,su" portion of the mount command is using a comma instead of a period.
 
All this to assess root access for an app? Whether or not SuperSU uses or deprecated ACCESS_SUPERUSER details in the manifest.XML of the app, it silently makes a choice if you take too long or memory is full. You can ALWAYS override those choices in SuperSU.

BTW if you do uninstall the app, delete its entry in the log as well. Deleting its entry also recalls the prompt without you having to wipe data.

All this coding...for what? We did read the OP right?
 
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From "How to SU":

X.4. ACCESS_SUPERUSER permission DEPRECATED
Due to changes in Android 5.0 Lollipop, this permission has been deprecated and is completely ignored from SuperSU v2.30 onwards

From SuperSU version 1.20 and onwards, the android.permission.ACCESS_SUPERUSER permission is declared by SuperSU. All root apps should from now on declare this permission in their AndroidManifest.xml:

<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_SUPERUSER" />​

If this permission is not present, SuperSU will present a warning in its superuser request popup (this is configurable in SuperSU settings). At the time of this writing this permission is not enforced, but it is expected that sometime in the future it will be, and apps requesting root that do not have this permission set will be silently denied.

If this permission is declared, the user will be able to see in the app permissions list that the app requests superuser access.​
 
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