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!

GENERAL TIP's:

Don't hury up! Take time. Read the internet. Be carefull. Write down your tasks. Make a plan. 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!

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:

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

Sources: Depending on your phone, please use google

Backup in recovery mode

TIP: First root your device (see above)!

Install heimdall

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

Download the needed files

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

Test

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

boot the device in the download mode (e.g. SII: pressing HOME + VOLUME_DOWN + POWER)
download the PIT file for your device

heimdall download-pit --output standard.pit

Apply a custom rom (cyanogenmod)

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

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

Download the cyanogenmod for your device

http://clockworkmod.com/rommanager

Connect the android device (Debugging mode)

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

[Category: Backup] [Category: Android]