Root Android Device
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Some phones have a special recovery mode... that recovery mode (that allows you to reflash your phone if it is bricked, like an iPhone) will check signatures on the updates that you are trying to install. If the signatures don't match, then it won't install.
In the Android world, the first thing you do is generally root the phone, then the next step is to install a custom boot loader that doesn't enforce the signature checking.
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In case that was worded confusingly, I mean there are two basic means of flashing a small device:
- log into the device and run an application (as root) that has access to flash the firmware.
- connect the device to something external, normally USB, and flash it "offline" simply overwriting the firmware, no root access needed
The second is what we do to the iPhones and iPads (sadly only through iTunes so not like we can install any firmware that they do not approve.) But no root access or even a booting system needed.
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@dafyre said:
Some phones have a special recovery mode... that recovery mode (that allows you to reflash your phone if it is bricked, like an iPhone) will check signatures on the updates that you are trying to install. If the signatures don't match, then it won't install.
In the Android world, the first thing you do is generally root the phone, then the next step is to install a custom boot loader that doesn't enforce the signature checking.
I see, so the functionality IS there, but there is a bootloader that cannot be updated in that way that blocks it outside of iOS-like signed updates. I guess that makes sense.
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@scottalanmiller said:
@JaredBusch said:
Rooting a phone is specifically an android term. The matching term for iOS is jail breaking
Yes, I know that they call it jailbreaking. Rooting is not an Android term, though, it's been an industry standard term for getting root level access when you were not supposed to have it (or a device tried to keep you from it) for a very long time, definitely back to my college years in the early 1990s. It simply means getting root level access (even for systems where that is not called root.)
Yes that is a broad definition of root. Good for you.
That is not relevant to the discussion. Rooting a phone is specifically an android term.
If we were talking about something else, then of course the more general definition could apply.
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@JaredBusch said:
That is not relevant to the discussion. Rooting a phone is specifically an android term.
I was unaware that the Android community had taking an industry standard term and was using it to mean something else. But the term seems to mean the same thing, does it not? What's different in the Android world? Are you saying that Android users are using the term to mean something other than gaining root access to a device?
If this is so, it is extra confusing because some Android devices DO use rooting exactly as I describe. If you build your own Android device, for example. It can't be specific to Android as a platform. It has to be specific to something else. Like specific phones models.
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@scottalanmiller said:
@dafyre said:
Some phones have a special recovery mode... that recovery mode (that allows you to reflash your phone if it is bricked, like an iPhone) will check signatures on the updates that you are trying to install. If the signatures don't match, then it won't install.
In the Android world, the first thing you do is generally root the phone, then the next step is to install a custom boot loader that doesn't enforce the signature checking.
I see, so the functionality IS there, but there is a bootloader that cannot be updated in that way that blocks it outside of iOS-like signed updates. I guess that makes sense.
Correct, exactly like iOS devices - only signed OSs can be installed so long as the bootloader is locked. This is common for almost every phone out there, and the mass majority of tablets as well.
The super cheap $100 Android tablets might not lock the bootloader, but then those companies don't care about customer satisfaction anyway.
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So we got a bit derailed there, does anyone know how to do this for his device?
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Rooting the device should be pretty straight forward, it'll just take a quick google and I'm sure there will be several good guides on how to do it.
Getting Ubuntu on there that's a different story. As mentioned you should be able to boot into recovery and flash any ROM that is compatible to the device, but from my quick google that doesn't seem to be the case with this phone.
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@hobbit666 said:
Rooting the device should be pretty straight forward, it'll just take a quick google and I'm sure there will be several good guides on how to do it.
Getting Ubuntu on there that's a different story. As mentioned you should be able to boot into recovery and flash any ROM that is compatible to the device, but from my quick google that doesn't seem to be the case with this phone.
That's what I kept finding. He claims that he found resourcing "proving" all of his ideas. But he absolutely refuses to share them with us, several times. Flatly refused to divulge his sources.
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My favorite community for this type of thing is the XDA Devs community. They have a fairly extensive forum system with guides for rooting and putting custom roms on almost any Android device.
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@scottalanmiller said:
That's what I kept finding. He claims that he found resourcing "proving" all of his ideas. But he absolutely refuses to share them with us, several times. Flatly refused to divulge his sources.
Maybe if I spent more time search I might find something but I don't see the point in installing Linux on a phone tbh.
@coliver said:
My favorite community for this type of thing is the XDA Devs community. They have a fairly extensive forum system with guides for rooting and putting custom roms on almost any Android device.
That's always my first call when I get a new Android phone
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@hobbit666 said:
Maybe if I spent more time search I might find something but I don't see the point in installing Linux on a phone tbh.
Seriously, this isn't a business task or anything. He declined to disclose what his end goal was as well or any information about what he was trying to accomplish. I can't tell if Ubuntu on a phone even does what he thinks that it does - almost certainly not.
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To sum this up. Ubuntu isn't officially supported on anything but what you can find here.
If you're trying to use another device than what is on their site. Good luck but I doubt anyone else will even attempt to provide help.
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@DustinB3403 said:
To sum this up. Ubuntu isn't officially supported on anything but what you can find here.
If you're trying to use another device than what is on their site. Good luck but I doubt anyone else will even attempt to provide help.
That's Ubuntu Phone, though, not normal Ubuntu. Does he want the phone distro or the full Linux install.
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@scottalanmiller your guess is as good as mine.
Being a phone that he's attempting to root and install a different OS on. I'm assuming the phone version.
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This is why people need to tell us their goals rather than leading with their proposed solution. Leaves so many things unnecessarily unanswered.
