• After 15+ years, we've made a big change: Android Forums is now Early Bird Club. Learn more here.

Root change partition layout without rooting?

J

joregelt

Newbie
hi
Is it possible to repartition the internal memory to increase space available to /Data WITHOUT rooting phone?
Alternatively, is there a minimal (AOSP?) non-rooted ROM that I can flash into the default partition layout.
The reason is to get more space than the default meagre amount WITHOUT rooting phone.
Mobileiron is a corporate security product that detects rooted phones and prevents them accessing corporate email, hence ruling out rooting as an option.
This leaves me with no space and a largely useless phone?

Any ideas

thanks

daniel
 
joregelt said:
hi
Is it possible to repartition the internal memory to increase space available to /Data WITHOUT rooting phone?
Alternatively, is there a minimal (AOSP?) non-rooted ROM that I can flash into the default partition layout.
The reason is to get more space than the default meagre amount WITHOUT rooting phone.
Mobileiron is a corporate security product that detects rooted phones and prevents them accessing corporate email, hence ruling out rooting as an option.
This leaves me with no space and a largely useless phone?

Any ideas

thanks

daniel
Click to expand...

well you would need to s-off the phone to do it, then flash a rom that fits a partition size of choice. i would imagine you would need to remove the superuser libraries from the rom to before you flash it in order to remove root from the device.
i dont know whether that program can detect s-off tho as s-off is outside of the android layer however unprotects system partition when booted so android can make changes to system on the fly (root required for that tho)

its tricky, in theory its possible

SUroot said:
No
Click to expand...

you sure?
the program detects root but imo it probably wont detect s-off, root is not required for custom mtd as revolutionary will get around that.
simply its removing root from a rom imo
 
I hope Rastaman is more right than SUroot, as it gives me a few more options.
I do not know how MobileIron detects "rooted" phones.
I am happy to just S-off the phone with Alpharev's boot cd.
But then what to do?

What is involved in "unrooting" a ROM. Is it just deleting a few binaries.
Also, are ROM's signed cryptographically.
ie. Do HTC sign their ROMS with some kind of HTC public key, so that Mobile Iron can see if I am running a non-standard ROM?

If there is some kind of signature, then I need to flash an HTC ROM. How then to find out which is the smallest? And can I shrink the /system and /cache partitions and "cram" this smallest ROM in.

If the ROMS are unsigned, then should I just try a simple sense ROM, and delete everything to do with being rooted?
Are these just certain binaries in /system/bin

I know some devs change the file layout a little. Where are the extra "rooted" binaries placed?

Can software detect which recovery is installed?
ie. could that be the way that MobileIron works, looks to see if there is a non-htc recovery installed?

thanks

daniel
 
joregelt said:
I hope Rastaman is more right than SUroot, as it gives me a few more options.
I do not know how MobileIron detects "rooted" phones.
I am happy to just S-off the phone with Alpharev's boot cd.
But then what to do?

What is involved in "unrooting" a ROM. Is it just deleting a few binaries.
Also, are ROM's signed cryptographically.
ie. Do HTC sign their ROMS with some kind of HTC public key, so that Mobile Iron can see if I am running a non-standard ROM?

If there is some kind of signature, then I need to flash an HTC ROM. How then to find out which is the smallest? And can I shrink the /system and /cache partitions and "cram" this smallest ROM in.

If the ROMS are unsigned, then should I just try a simple sense ROM, and delete everything to do with being rooted?
Are these just certain binaries in /system/bin

I know some devs change the file layout a little. Where are the extra "rooted" binaries placed?

Can software detect which recovery is installed?
ie. could that be the way that MobileIron works, looks to see if there is a non-htc recovery installed?

thanks

daniel
Click to expand...

i wouldnt use alpharev as alpharev require root. use revolutionary from revolutionary.io

the rest i dont know, for example if you s-off a standard htc rom with revolutionary it is not rooted untill you flash the superuser zip file
this is why i think its marginally possible

i dont know the rest tho
 
Yep, you could even root with unrevoked as you will flash over the rooted Rom, but you'll need someone to make an aosp Rom without root.
 
SU Root, that response left much more room to hope than your previous one :)
Can you tell me what actually happens when the phone gets rooted by unrevoked.
I understand that
1. the the normal htc recovery is replaced by CWM, and
2. some "apps" are installed ie. superuser.
Are these apps just links to binaries that were always there, or are there
3. new binaries installed to the android system also?

Is there anything else?
Could it be that MobileIron is actually detecting a nonstandard recovery?
Can you fastboot flash a stock HTC recovery after successfully flashing your own ROM (rooted or not) to the phone.
Obviously you cannot then reflash another rom without rerooting etc... but if the ROM was stable and good, that could be acceptable.

Also, what is the role of the "signed" status of the official HTC ROMS?

thanks

Daniel
 
Hmm can't find much but without root, I can't see how it could detect a custom recovery. Looking at the permissions on the market, it doesn't give anything away.

It may just be looking for the SU binary. It would be interesting to do some testing, by rooting then removing SU, but I doubt that would be enough. Next step is to flash a custom ROM that has no root. I could compile you my dGB without root if you like? I can give it a go tonight (hopefully).

If all doesn't work, you can simply return to stock with an RUU (providing yours is available).

Yopu would probably want to take a titanium backup so you can keep your settings etc incase you need to restore (using visionary+ temp root -lost at reboot)
 
i cant see how it would detect recovery as what determines a recovery as being none standard? the fact that this program is available for multiple devices the only thing unified is the OS and how the OS behaves. in this case if you removed the binaries needed for SU and remove root at OS/kernel layer then I would think that would be enough.
when not rooted, recovery and hboot partitions are protected and unavailable so no app that runs at SW layer would be able to play with that

Maybe a good test is to run revolutionary with your current rom and dont apply the superuser zip so it does root it.
see if the app can detect it. if it cannot then i would assume you are good to go
 
if you would be willing to recompile without root that would be fantastic.
i would certainly give it a try
I have reflashed my stock RUU and am trying to make incremental changes and see where the program stops syncing to the server.
i will follow this order.
ruu stock rom
install mobile iron and email program and get it working
revolutionary to get s-off only
revolutionary to get CWM
flash extra zip to get root

this may tell me what is making it fail.

i will keep you posted.

As an aside for my own info.
Do you have to recompile to remove root.
ie. you cannot just rename/delete some files in certain directories?
I guess this goes back to what change(s) is/are made to the android OS in order to gain root.

thanks

Daniel

ps. Rastaman to quick. that is what I will do i think
 
joregelt said:
if you would be willing to recompile without root that would be fantastic.
i would certainly give it a try
I have reflashed my stock RUU and am trying to make incremental changes and see where the program stops syncing to the server.
i will follow this order.
ruu stock rom
install mobile iron and email program and get it working
revolutionary to get s-off only
revolutionary to get CWM
flash extra zip to get root

this may tell me what is making it fail.

i will keep you posted.

As an aside for my own info.
Do you have to recompile to remove root.
ie. you cannot just rename/delete some files in certain directories?
I guess this goes back to what change(s) is/are made to the android OS in order to gain root.

thanks

Daniel

ps. Rastaman to quick. that is what I will do i think
Click to expand...
jamaican bob sleigh team mate :P i learn to run fast
Sanka, you dead?


seriously tho i think its possible. to remove root would be quicker to compile a rom without it

just try without flashing super user zip

also make sure you md5 everything a revolutionary is hboot changing and if that goes wrong its dead device
 
Just one thing to note. One account I read said that it took a day for mobile iron to stop the syncing. So maybe leave 48 hours between each step.

Let me know how you get on. I generally have monday nights free now, so Let me know and I can compile next monday if needs be.
 
Have flashed the HTC stock 2.3.3 GB developer ROM
Works well.

Now I am S-Off via revolutionary, but still original recovery and NOT rooted.
I will wait 48 hours.
Then manually flash a CWM or 4EXT recovery image.
Will keep you posted.
SUroot, I think I would like to try your non-root version of the dGB Rom, instead of just rooting as the final step, which I am certain will stop things working, if the modded recovery doesn't do that.
Seems like a wasted step.
Better off doing something that can actually be used.
If you have the chance please do compile without root, and let me know how I can download.
Many thanks in advance.

Daniel
 
joregelt said:
Have flashed the HTC stock 2.3.3 GB developer ROM
Works well.

Now I am S-Off via revolutionary, but still original recovery and NOT rooted.
I will wait 48 hours.
Then manually flash a CWM or 4EXT recovery image.
Will keep you posted.
SUroot, I think I would like to try your non-root version of the dGB Rom, instead of just rooting as the final step, which I am certain will stop things working, if the modded recovery doesn't do that.
Seems like a wasted step.
Better off doing something that can actually be used.
If you have the chance please do compile without root, and let me know how I can download.
Many thanks in advance.

Daniel
Click to expand...
flash cwm 2.5.0.7 or amonRA 2.0.1 depending on erase size. i dont trust anything based on cwm later than that
 
I have downloaded recovery-clockwork-2.5.0.7-desirec.img from the clockworkmodrecovery website.
i will flash this from fastboot tomorrow night.

Daniel
 
not if you're GSM you wont... Thats for CDMA!. use the one in our ultimate toolbox

Edit, far too many Daniels.

Edit2,

Its worth noting that unrooted OS will not be able to symlink /cache/downloads to /data/local/downloads.

This means with teh dGB hboot, you will only have 5MB of cache, which results in not being able to download an app over this size.

We may need to look into a new custom hboot for you.

Although without SU and busybox, we may shave a bit of space from /system

If you don't use google talk, this can be removed also.
 
thanks for that heads up
I have downloaded recovery-clockwork-2.5.0.7-bravo.img which I think is the right one.
The toolbox files are password protected.

I think I would need more than 5mb Cache, and I would also need gtalk.
You are right, I will need to cobble together an alternative partition layout.
I will post tomorrow after the recovery is flashed.

Daniel
 
CWM 2.5.0.7 installed.
Everything still working fine.
So I will do nothing further for now.
When SUroot has time to compile a personal ROM for a complete stranger, I will take the next step.

I really do appreciate the lengths that people go to to help.

Thanks again

Daniel
 
that does not sound too good.
I hope you can make it work.
I had really started to be optimistic that I could get this phone to do just what I want.

Let me know if you want me to test anything.

thanks

daniel
 
Hi SURoot
how did it go in the end with the non-root version of the dBG ROM?
Couldn't boot?

Would it be worth experimenting with removing some parts/binaries/permissions from a rooted ROM and seeing if that works?

My problem is that I do not actually know what changes are made by "rooting"
I have been told that there is an SU binary file, an I assume that there are some permission changes.

Daniel
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom