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[Verizon] [App] Root Toolkit for Android

scary alien

scary alien

not really so scary
VIP Member
.
Guys,

A present for my rooted Galaxy Nexus 'mates: http://androidforums.com/application-announcements/522566-app-android-root-toolkit-beta.html

This little app I whipped-up over the last week and a half should be most useful for the Galaxy Nexus folks.

It'll do some simple root tasks like the various reboot options (normal, recovery, fastboot/bootloader), power-off device, and will allow you to remount / (rootfs) and /system in read-write or read-only mode.

The boon to Galaxy Nexus root users comes in the form of the ability to:


  • flash a stock recovery (4.0.1 or 4.0.2)

  • flash a few different versions of ClockworkMod custom recovery (including the touch versions)

  • make recovery "stick" (so that the stock recovery won't get re-flashed on shutdown)

  • identify the currently installed recovery
The flashing stock recovery feature should be especially helpful to those that are root but with locked bootloaders or who don't wish to have to use fastboot to flash the stock recovery (i.e., just to receive an over-the-air (OTA) update).

I had a blast writing this and I hope it proves useful to you.

Let me know if you have any comments, questions, suggestions, etc.

Finally, kudos and thanks to my friend Steven for being my beta-tester and for his constant encouragement :).

Cheers!

edit: by the way, let me know if you have any other GNex recoveries that you'd like to see supported in the app.
 
It's a great app, Scary. You know I had nothing to do with it. .. Great app, though!

Edit: I must say that I really like the ability to flash whatever recovery I want..

Question: Do you have more features coming or am I mistaken?
 
Steven58 said:
It's a great app, Scary. You know I had nothing to do with it. .. Great app, though!

Edit: I must say that I really like the ability to flash whatever recovery I want..

Question: Do you have more features coming or am I mistaken?
Click to expand...

Thank you, sir! (and you have helped me immensely--don't anyone believe otherwise :)).

I don't have any major features to add at this time--I tried to put in all of the relevant features in this release as I could think of, but I'm wide-open to suggestions for new features or enhancements.

Let me know :).
 
scary alien said:
LOL, whaddaya think of that one? ;) :)

I run that one myself...:p
Click to expand...

Can't imagine who wouldn't be. The force is a practical requirement while flashing phones.

I imagine there will be a great deal of interest in this with the recent news of new source on the way. Don't think it'll be long before you can 86 the beta designation either. I still have a few things to try but everything I've done so far is butter. Killer app.
 
scary alien said:
.
Guys,

A present for my rooted Galaxy Nexus 'mates: http://androidforums.com/application-announcements/522566-app-android-root-toolkit-beta.html

This little app I whipped-up over the last week and a half should be most useful for the Galaxy Nexus folks.

It'll do some simple root tasks like the various reboot options (normal, recovery, fastboot/bootloader), power-off device, and will allow you to remount / (rootfs) and /system in read-write or read-only mode.

The boon to Galaxy Nexus root users comes in the form of the ability to:



  • flash a stock recovery (4.0.1 or 4.0.2)



  • [*]flash a few different versions of ClockworkMod custom recovery (including the touch versions)


    [*]make recovery "stick" (so that the stock recovery won't get re-flashed on shutdown)


    [*]identify the currently installed recovery
The flashing stock recovery feature should be especially helpful to those that are root but with locked bootloaders or who don't wish to have to use fastboot to flash the stock recovery (i.e., just to receive an over-the-air (OTA) update).

I had a blast writing this and I hope it proves useful to you.

Let me know if you have any comments, questions, suggestions, etc.

Finally, kudos and thanks to my friend Steven for being my beta-tester and for his constant encouragement :).

Cheers!

edit: by the way, let me know if you have any other GNex recoveries that you'd like to see supported in the app.
Click to expand...


Well, what can I say - phantastic job. I am exstactic; the first Yank who "walks the talk". Much appreciate your contribution and help. You've provided an easy solution to my android woes.:)
 
heat57 said:
Well, what can I say - phantastic job. I am exstactic; the first Yank who "walks the talk". Much appreciate your contribution and help. You've provided an easy solution to my android woes.:)
Click to expand...

viper689 said:
Just wanted to say that I used this Toolkit a lot last night when I was theming/modding and it worked liked a charm! Great work!
Click to expand...

Thank you both, very much! :)

Let me know if you have any suggestions for updates, etc.

Cheers!
 
scary alien said:
Thank you both, very much! :)

Let me know if you have any suggestions for updates, etc.

Cheers!
Click to expand...

I know this is a bit cheeky, but if this could be made to work for .... (cringe) say a Nexus S (more cringe) Moto Xoom?
Anyway, just thought let you now that I ran into a bit of trouble after updating to 4.0.4 - couldn't get your app to make recovery stick. Found simple solution by deleting the recovery-from-boot.p-bak file from the system folder from the prevoius installation and running the app again to make the recovery stick - thanks again.
 
heat57 said:
I know this is a bit cheeky, but if this could be made to work for .... (cringe) say a Nexus S (more cringe) Moto Xoom?
Anyway, just thought let you now that I ran into a bit of trouble after updating to 4.0.4 - couldn't get your app to make recovery stick. Found simple solution by deleting the recovery-from-boot.p-bak file from the system folder from the prevoius installation and running the app again to make the recovery stick - thanks again.
Click to expand...

LOL, heat57, not cheeky at all--I asked for it, eh? :) ;)

Oh, so I guess my app ran into both a recovery-from-boot.p and a previously-renamed recovery-from-boot.p-bak file? I can fix that by making it ask if you want to delete the older / previous recovery-from-boot.p-bak. Its on my list now and I'll get that out there this weekend.

As far as the Nexus S and Moto Xoom go, I'd happily support the flashing of the stock or custom recoveries if there are known download locations. I'm currently hosting the stock recoveries and a few of the custom ones for the GNex on my Dropbox account--I don't know if they'd ding me if that became a high-volume download area (I'm not in any danger (yet) of exceeding my free 2GB limit, though ;) :)).

I would just have to know the device's getprop ro.product.device value, a brief description of the recovery, and the download URL (I'll calculate the MD5s myself that I use to double-check that the download is good--I don't think I mentioned that the app does verify that its downloads are validated before allowing them to be flashed). Then, I'd just have to make a few tweaks to my app to accommodate more than just the GNex devices to allow flashing.

Let me know if you want to pursue this...ping me at scary.alien@gmail.com if so.

Cheers!
 
scary alien said:
I don't think I mentioned that the app does verify that its downloads are validated before allowing them to be flashed.
Click to expand...

Hey, might not be a bad idea to throw that fact in there as text..."downloading and verifying MD5", or similar? Just a thought. Flashaholics love that MD5 word, it's comforting. :D
 
iowabowtech said:
Hey, might not be a bad idea to throw that fact in there as text..."downloading and verifying MD5", or similar? Just a thought. Flashaholics love that MD5 word, it's comforting. :D
Click to expand...

I'll try to put that in there in my new 1.1 version I've already started.

I was going to, but while the download and MD5 check happen in the same place, the MD5 check happens very quickly and is not reflected in the progress bar that's displayed (I didn't think flashing-up a two-second progress bar was useful ;) and I didn't wand to misrepresent what the download progress bar was doing).

If the MD5 doesn't match, the app will certainly tell you (I tested that, of course ;)).

I am toying with the idea of adding some of my AFV app's functionality in this one, but I don't want to bloat it up too much with functions that are already covered elsewhere--but I do want the toolkit to be as helpful to rooters as possible.

Thank you very much for the suggestion and comment--its much appreciated! :)
 
Version 1.1 has been uploaded to the Market (although the Market's a little slow to show the new version). Here's the change log:

[version 1.1 - 31-March-2012]:

- support GSM/HSPA+ 4.0.4 stock recovery

- remove old/unused/uneeded permissions

- fix null-pointer exception due to mount information parsing on some devices

- provide option to delete existing recovery-from-boot.p-bak when sticking recovery

- several other tweaks and enhancements

Cheers and thanks to all for your support and feedback (more updates and enhancements coming! :)).
 
New version just uploaded.

Here's the change log:

[version 1.2 - 09-April-2012]:

- support save/protect root and restore root feature for devices with a ext2/3/4 system filesystem

- minor tweaks to graphical elements

- minor fix to disclaimer preference saving

- many other minor tweaks

The new save/protect and restore root features should help folks when an OTA comes-out (make sure to save root sometime before accepting an OTA).

Enjoy!
 
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