Android Devices

Preface

PLEASE BE AWARE YOU KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING WHEN YOU PERFORM TASKS MENTIONED IN THE FOLLOWING SECITONS!

I AM NOT AND WILL NOT BE RESPONSIBLE FOR ERROR, NON FUNCTIONAL DEVICES, TROUBLE AND HEADAGES.

AGAIN: BE SURE YOU KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING!

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GENERAL TIP's:

• Don't hury up! Take time. Read in the internet. Be carefull. Write down your tasks. Make a plan and do step by step. Always make a backup before you proceded. Be patient ;-)
• For mission critical tasks use different methods and tools in parallel. If one fails on recovery, you have a backup.
• Use encryption for your backup data. Use a secure place to store the encryption pass phrases!

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Holo Backup

One of the most simpe ways is to use each android phones build in funktionality in conjunction with the android developer kit (adk). The prgram is called

• Simple ADB Backup - http://omegavesko.github.io/SimpleADBBackup

Please refer to the various HowTo's in the web.

Hint: Simple ADB Backup is using the standard Android Backup functionality which does not perform any error checking! See: http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/23357/is-there-a-way-to-look-inside-and-modify-an-adb-backup-created-file

Helium Backup or carbon

• http://clockworkmod.com/carbon

Root an android device

The procedure to root an android device boils down to a few basic tasks. They can be performed using various tools and operating systems but remain always the same:

1. connect your running phone to your pc so you can copy files to it
2. enable debug mode
3. enable PTP usb mode (not MTP)
4. get and download a 'super user script (usually packed in a zip file) and put it on the phone
5. boot your android device in download mode (e.g. SII: pressing HOME + VOLUME_DOWN + POWER)
6. connect your phone to the pc
7. use a flash program like e.g. heimdall (commandline) to flash device with a recovery image
8. imediately after that (!!!) boot the android device with the recovery image (e.g. SIII: pressing HOME + VOLUME_UP + POWER)
9. load the previously copied super user script (usually a zip file) within the recovery menu
10. reboot the android device into graphical mode
11. start the newly installed super user app
12. enjoy your rooted phone

Sources: Depending on your phone, please use google

Backup with cyanogenmod recovery image

This procedure will backup your rom to an external SD-card in your device using a recovery image. Therefore you have to flash and reboot the device with this image! The SD-card must have an appropriate size!

Install heimdall

sudo apt get install heimdall-flash heimdall-flash-frontend

Download the needed files

1. Download a clockwork mod recovery image for your phone ("cmw"-file)
2. check the md5sum of the downloaded file !

Test the connection

• good source (GER): http://www.android-hilfe.de/anleitungen-fuer-samsung-galaxy-s3/300528-anleitung-mit-heimdall-unter-linux-recovery-custom-rom-flashen.html

1. boot the device in the download mode (e.g. SII: pressing HOME + VOLUME_DOWN + POWER)
2. connect your device to the pc
3. download the PIT file for your device

heimdall download-pit --output standard.pit

Download the cyanogenmod for your device

• http://clockworkmod.com/rommanager

1. Connect the android device (Debugging mode)

sudo su
heimdall flash --RECOVERY recovery-clockwork-X.X.X.X-DEVICE.img --no-reboot

If the flash was successfull:

1. disconnect the device and proceed with the next step

Reboot into the recovery image

1. boot the device in the download mode (e.g. SII: press HOME + VOLUME_DOWN + POWER)
2. follow the backup and restore instructions

Backup your backup

An SD-Card is not a very good choice for storing backups.

• Put the SD-Card out of the phone to your pc and save the file with e.g. rsync (makes md5sums!)
• also backup the cyanogen mod recovery image you used for the bakup
• make a CHANGELOG file

YOU ARE DONE

Apply a custom rom (cyanogenmod)

There are various and very good informations on the wiki of cyanogen mod (here for the samsung galaxy S3). Please use these instructions:

• http://wiki.cyanogenmod.org/w/Install_CM_for_i9300

Please inform yourself on how to backup your device in case of a problem BEFORE you proceed!

Cyanogenmod ROM's and recovery images you will get here:

• http://clockworkmod.com/rommanager