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Root [International] How to edit root files?

D

doron447

Newbie
Hello,

I have rooted my phone (galaxy S3) and I'm trying to delete/move root files (such as: drivers, etc..) but every root explorer that I have tried does not support this actions..
What do I do wrong? maybe the problem is in the "superuser settings"? I can't find there any option to enable editing root files... I guess the files are defined as read only..

Anyone can help?

Thanks,.
 
doron447 said:
Hello,

I have rooted my phone (galaxy S3) and I'm trying to delete/move root files (such as: drivers, etc..) but every root explorer that I have tried does not support this actions..
What do I do wrong? maybe the problem is in the "superuser settings"? I can't find there any option to enable editing root files... I guess the files are defined as read only..

Anyone can help?

Thanks,.
Click to expand...

Hey doron447, welcome to the AndroidForums! :)

I haven't used Root Explorer myself (but I hear its very good), but I've used ES File Explorer and it has a root-explorer option to allow the /system filesystem (partition) to be remounted in read-write mode, which I'm speculating might be the issue here.

I would also caution you to make a Nandroid backup first if you are able to (you'll need a custom recovery for that) and to either rename the apps and files vs. actually deleting them. Freezing an app is also much better than renaming or deleting since you are basically just disabling them -- they are still installed on your phone, they just can be run until and unless you "thaw" (re-enable) them.

A few apps can help you with the freeze / thaw functionality (notably, Titanium Backup).

Also, if you don't mind, I'm going to go-ahead and move your thread to the all-things-root area for the SGS3. You should get some very good and device-specific help by the fine folks in there.

Cheers!

edit: oops! I don't know which specific version of SGS3 you have (Verizon, T-Mobile, Sprint, AT&T, or International). Let me know! :)
 
Thanks!
Actually that's exactly what I'm trying to do (rename the app folder) but unfortunately I can't.. Please forward my thread to "all-things-root area for the SGS3" - I hope I could find specific answer there..
 
Doron,

I can't stress enough to have a good nandroid backup in you are going to start moving/renaming system files and folders. It may not be a matter of simply reversing your action if you mess up.

To move the thread to the proper location, we'll need to know who your carrier is. Each phone in the SGS3 family is just different enough to require it's own section. Let us know and we'll move it for you. :D
 
doron447 said:
Thanks!
Actually that's exactly what I'm trying to do (rename the app folder) but unfortunately I can't.. Please forward my thread to "all-things-root area for the SGS3" - I hope I could find specific answer there..
Click to expand...

doron447,

I've moved your thread to the "International" area of the SGS3 all-things-root sub-forum (they seem to have the most active area). Let me know if this ends-up not being the appropriate area.

Cheers and good luck! :)
 
Yes I know.. Don't worry I've already backed up my phone..
How can I know what is my phone version is? I guess it is international but how can I be sure?
 
doron447 said:
Yes I know.. Don't worry I've already backed up my phone..
How can I know what is my phone version is? I guess it is international but how can I be sure?
Click to expand...

Doron,

Who is your carrier? (Verizon, T-Mobile, Sprint, AT&T, or none of the these?)

That'll tell us which version (or at least I hope it will ;)).
 
None of this is my carrier..
I have bought my phone in India and I'm using it in Israel (Hope this information helps..)
The Android version is: 4.0.4
 
Before we go any further, can we at least question this:


doron447 said:
I'm trying to delete/move root files (such as: drivers, etc..)
Click to expand...

?

What do you mean you want to delete or move drivers? This will stop your phone functioning if you do not know what you are doing.

Please be explicit in what you actually want to do and what you think that will achieve.
 
SUroot said:
Before we go any further, can we at least question this:




?

What do you mean you want to delete or move drivers? This will stop your phone functioning if you do not know what you are doing.

Please be explicit in what you actually want to do and what you think that will achieve.
Click to expand...


Thank you for your concern.

Ok, Let me be more specific:
I want to rename the camera driver folder, so all applications that are using the driver will not be able to use it. which means the camera will be blocked.

Although I have rooted my phone and I have try to mount root files for r/w - I still can't rename the folder name...

What am I doing wrong?
 
doron447 said:
Anyone??
:)
Click to expand...

LOL :).

Doron,

Are you sure your filesystem has been mounted in r/w mode?

You could also try to do the rename directly from a shell prompt--it may be that the apps that are trying this for you are hiding an error or warning message that might tell you what is going on, whereas a shell-based rename command might reveal the issue.

Make sure you've remounted "/" (rootfs) and /system in read-write mode first.

Via adb:

c:\android-sdk-windows> adb shell
$ su
# cd /system (I'm guessing here)
# mv driver-folder driver-folder-old

Via Android Terminal Emulator (free app in the Market):

$ su
# cd /system (I'm guessing here)
# mv driver-folder driver-folder-old

Let us know!
 
Hi,

I have mounted with app called "mount / system (rw/ro)", and I have used terminal emulator.
here is the log - what do you say about that?

app_168@android:/ $ export PATH=/data/local/bin:$PATH
app_168@android:/ $ su
app_168@android:/ # cd sys
app_168@android:/sys # cd devices
app_168@android:/sys/devices # ls
platform
system
virtual
app_168@android:/sys/devices # cd virtual
app_168@android:/sys/devices/virtual # ls
android_usb
audio
bdi
block
camera
flash
gpio
hdmi_audio
host_notify
input
mali
mem
misc
net
ppp
regulator
sec
sensors
sound
switch
timed_output
tty
tzic
ump
usbmon
vc
video4linux
vtconsole
app_168@android:/sys/devices/virtual # mv camera cameraq
failed on 'camera' - No such file or directory
aq camera <
failed on 'cameraq' - No such file or directory
255|app_168@android:/sys/devices/virtual #

As you can see.. "No such file or directory" failed..

Ooohhhhhhhhh............ I'm getting tired... :)
 
Can you issue an ls -a -l camera command inside that same virtual directory post what it says?

Also, please post the output of a mount command, too (that'll verify / show the "rw" mount status for all of us to see (not that I don't trust the app you used, but this should show us for sure)).

The only other thing I guess it could be is that it truly is a virtual device that you're not allowed to monkey with--i.e., there's something about its properties or permissions...regardless of root?

Let us know!
 
app_168@android:/sys/devices/virtual # ls -a -l camera
drwxr-xr-x root root 2012-07-11 11:05 front
drwxr-xr-x root root 2012-07-11 11:05 rear
app_168@android:/sys/devices/virtual #

Here are the photos of the app output:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/j40nd6ziguooqg5/lqP8yVAPnT

Here is the output of the mount command:
rootfs / rootfs ro,relatime 0 0
tmpfs /dev tmpfs rw,nosuid,relatime,mode=755 0 0
devpts /dev/pts devpts rw,relatime,mode=600 0 0
proc /proc proc rw,relatime 0 0
sysfs /sys sysfs rw,relatime 0 0
none /acct cgroup rw,relatime,cpuacct 0 0
tmpfs /mnt/asec tmpfs rw,relatime,mode=755,gid=1000 0 0
tmpfs /mnt/obb tmpfs rw,relatime,mode=755,gid=1000 0 0
none /dev/cpuctl cgroup rw,relatime,cpu 0 0
/dev/block/mmcblk0p9 /system ext4 rw,relatime,barrier=1,data=ordered 0 0
/dev/block/mmcblk0p12 /data ext4 rw,nosuid,nodev,noatime,barrier=1,journal_async_commit,data=ordered,noauto_da_alloc,discard 0 0
/dev/block/mmcblk0p8 /cache ext4 rw,nosuid,nodev,noatime,barrier=1,journal_async_commit,data=ordered 0 0
/dev/block/mmcblk0p3 /efs ext4 rw,nosuid,nodev,noatime,barrier=1,journal_async_commit,data=ordered 0 0
/sys/kernel/debug /sys/kernel/debug debugfs rw,relatime 0 0
/dev/fuse /mnt/sdcard fuse rw,nosuid,nodev,relatime,user_id=1023,group_id=1023,default_permissions,allow_other 0 0
 
doron447 said:
Here is the output of the mount command:

rootfs / rootfs ro,relatime 0 0
tmpfs /dev tmpfs rw,nosuid,relatime,mode=755 0 0
devpts /dev/pts devpts rw,relatime,mode=600 0 0
proc /proc proc rw,relatime 0 0
sysfs /sys sysfs rw,relatime 0 0
none /acct cgroup rw,relatime,cpuacct 0 0
tmpfs /mnt/asec tmpfs rw,relatime,mode=755,gid=1000 0 0
tmpfs /mnt/obb tmpfs rw,relatime,mode=755,gid=1000 0 0
none /dev/cpuctl cgroup rw,relatime,cpu 0 0
/dev/block/mmcblk0p9 /system ext4 rw,relatime,barrier=1,data=ordered 0 0
/dev/block/mmcblk0p12 /data ext4 rw,nosuid,nodev,noatime,barrier=1,journal_async_commit,data=ordered,noauto_da_alloc,discard 0 0
/dev/block/mmcblk0p8 /cache ext4 rw,nosuid,nodev,noatime,barrier=1,journal_async_commit,data=ordered 0 0
/dev/block/mmcblk0p3 /efs ext4 rw,nosuid,nodev,noatime,barrier=1,journal_async_commit,data=ordered 0 0
/sys/kernel/debug /sys/kernel/debug debugfs rw,relatime 0 0
/dev/fuse /mnt/sdcard fuse rw,nosuid,nodev,relatime,user_id=1023,group_id=1023,default_permissions,allow_other 0 0
Click to expand...

First off, sorry, but I gave you the wrong ls command for the camera directory (I forgot it was a directory). Can you issue the following ls commands:

ls -a -l -d /
ls -a -l -d /sys
ls -a -l -d /sys/devices
ls -a -l -d /sys/devices/virtual
ls -a -l -d /sys/devices/virtual/camera

The second thing is that I can see that the root filesystem (/) is still mounted in read-only mode (see above). I don't know if the app you were using would allow you to also remount "/" (rootfs) as read-write, but I know my Android Root Toolkit app will (see last entry in my signature).

Also, when I remount the root filesystem (/) as r/w on my GNex, I get similar errors / messages like you do when I try to create a file in the /sys/devices/virtual directory--he won't let me!

So, I'm guessing that either the directory permissions or the possibly special nature of this being a devices directory (regardless of root access/permission) is what's keeping you from renaming your camera folder.

I can do some more testing when I get home (where I'll have the benefit of using adb and being able to squirrel-away a Nandroid backup before I start monkeying with my own files ;) :)).
 
Hi,..
I guess you are right.. I hope you are wrong... :)

I have tried your recommended app "root toolkit" and I have mounted rootfs..
I have checked this and I have seen that rootfs is RW:
-------------------------------------------------------------
app_168@android:/sys/devices/virtual/camera # mount
rootfs / rootfs rw,relatime 0 0
tmpfs /dev tmpfs rw,nosuid,relatime,mode=755 0 0
devpts /dev/pts devpts rw,relatime,mode=600 0 0
proc /proc proc rw,relatime 0 0
sysfs /sys sysfs rw,relatime 0 0
none /acct cgroup rw,relatime,cpuacct 0 0
tmpfs /mnt/asec tmpfs rw,relatime,mode=755,gid=1000 0 0
tmpfs /mnt/obb tmpfs rw,relatime,mode=755,gid=1000 0 0
none /dev/cpuctl cgroup rw,relatime,cpu 0 0
/dev/block/mmcblk0p9 /system ext4 rw,relatime,barrier=1,data=ordered 0 0
/dev/block/mmcblk0p12 /data ext4 rw,nosuid,nodev,noatime,barrier=1,journal_async_commit,data=ordered,noauto_da_alloc,discard 0 0
/dev/block/mmcblk0p8 /cache ext4 rw,nosuid,nodev,noatime,barrier=1,journal_async_commit,data=ordered 0 0
/dev/block/mmcblk0p3 /efs ext4 rw,nosuid,nodev,noatime,barrier=1,journal_async_commit,data=ordered 0 0
/sys/kernel/debug /sys/kernel/debug debugfs rw,relatime 0 0
/dev/fuse /mnt/sdcard fuse rw,nosuid,nodev,relatime,user_id=1023,group_id=1023,default_permissions,allow_other 0 0
-------------------------------------------------------------

I have tried to rename the directory, but still - "No such file or directory.."

This does not make any sense.. it must be a way to pass this...
Hope you'll find it.. ;)
 
doron,

I was/am unable to rename a file in that directory (or even create a new file in there).

I even tried to do this while booted in ClockworkMod recovery--no dice, same errors / warnings / messages.

Still not sure what's going on here...:(
 
SUroot said:
It appears to be protected. Any attempt to rename it in root explorer simply renames it back, regardless of permissions.
Click to expand...

+1.

I'd heed the implied warning of not being able to rename or move a file in there without extraordinary measures since it appears to be deeply enmeshed without the O/S (it is a virtual device, after all).

You might need to consult a ROM dev re. this...(LOL, although SUroot is a ROM dev ;) :)--if he doesn't know, then I'm not sure where to go next...).

Sorry I couldn't be of more help :(.
 
It must be a simple way to solve this issue..
remember - the goal is to block the camera for all apps... Ohhh... must be another way.....

Thanks!
 
doron447 said:
It must be a simple way to solve this issue..
remember - the goal is to block the camera for all apps... Ohhh... must be another way.....

Thanks!
Click to expand...

We (you :p) could look at the source code to see how it all fits together--that might reveal something that could help.

I haven't pulled the source for a while on my Linux laptop, so I don't have it readily available, but I'll try to have a look this weekend on an older version.

If you're up to it, here's the instructions: Downloading the Source Tree | Android Open Source
 
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