[Q] Android on Galaxy SII and NTS/HFS Plus - Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Hi guys,
I recently learned that some Android devices, including the Galaxy S II (but otherwise mostly just tablets), have USB host functionality which allows them among many things to use external storage devices.
Most often these are formatted using the FAT 32 file system, which Android seems to be able to read fine. I was wondering if anyone knows of a way to access other file systems like NTFS or (and this is what I'm really interested in) Mac OS Extended/ HFS Plus (Journaled) which might be set up on the redundant drive.
It might already be the case that Android can understand these file systems (I don't know as I haven't been able to get the relevant I would need yet), but otherwise it'd be really useful to know if there's an app already out there or some other workaround.
Thanks for your help, xdadevs

Having searched you don't find much info, especially if you're looking to get HFS access on a device that isn't rooted and doesn't have a custom ROM installed.
So, does anyone know of any apps out there that don't require a root?

Related

[Q] [REQ] Andoird on I8910 OmniaHD??

can someone tell me if is possible port Android on this amazing device??
someone is working on this???
I wuold like a lot if someone port Andoid on oHD!!!
lukas_ita said:
can someone tell me if is possible port Android on this amazing device??
someone is working on this???
I wuold like a lot if someone port Andoid on oHD!!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was working on it for a long time. Unfortunately it is impossible, due to limited bootloader space (not enough for an android one) and no recovery partition. Also it would need a totally new partition layout (as it only has two accessable internal and one external drive, so no cache, recovery access, nor swap.
And also do not forget about the hardware incompatibility. Even if we manage to boot it, you will hardly be able to even make a phone call. Not to say use WiFi, or GPS, BT, or anything.
hi i joined because of some interest in this,
first of all let met tell you that i own a samsoung i8320 (vodafone h1).
this in some way helps because we now have a 'working' limo kernel, in my opinion it might help us out here.
the problem i have is that i never ever yet have been able to do 'any of the work here under' - the fact that i know howto doesn't make me capable of doing, (its like the fact that you know a plain fly's because of big wings and an engine, doesn't make you a pilot)
---------
the H1 uses a rather standard linux kernel as far as i can tell from the source could, though i havn't been able to run it inside quemu yet..
some guys allready interested in porting android say that they got android running but without functions like phone or wifi. this is because thay used an android kernel rather than the samsung one.
step 1:
so what if you would strip the samsung rom from all 'userland' software, keeping only the kernel, its drivers and busybox stuf.
creating a root shell only - you may even be able to make it mount as /boot rather than /
step 2:
now ad ad adtional filesystem on the internal phone memory or an external sdcard ... format it as you like (ext3 with noadtime could do, but other options are also availible).
this should now be where the remaining of the android rom should be. you could now always update most of your your android and apps exept for your linux kernel or drivers. without reflashing. this idea is largely based on apps-2-sd so we all know its been done before.
fonix232 said:
I was working on it for a long time. Unfortunately it is impossible, due to limited bootloader space (not enough for an android one) and no recovery partition. Also it would need a totally new partition layout (as it only has two accessable internal and one external drive, so no cache, recovery access, nor swap.
And also do not forget about the hardware incompatibility. Even if we manage to boot it, you will hardly be able to even make a phone call. Not to say use WiFi, or GPS, BT, or anything.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The i8910 community is great....this phone is great...a porting of android on this phone wuold mean a great number of donations!
cannot you use E\ (massmemory...8Gb or 16Gb) like partition?

[Q] Encrypted container for Android

I am using Truecrypt on my PC as well as Ubuntu 10.10.
I am looking for a similar technology in Android.
Like you can mount and unmount a container like a SD card.
Nearest I reached was, people suggesting hiding files, which is not secure, simply put the card in another machine, you will see everything.
Another suggestion was to use some secure files, but it can store some information only.
I cannot see any evidence in truecrypt forums, they are working on any android version.
I was just checking Folder Lock, they do have a iPhone version. Not that impressive idea. Needs to upload data online to see in iPhone!!!
We need better and safer ideas from Androids.
Crack on...
I have the same problem for Android.
The only programs I found that you can use are secretvault pro en FileCrypter.
I use the last one. It encrypts the folder you want, but it's a little bit slow for maps above 100 MB.
I don't understand that with more than 250.000 apps, nobody comes out with a program like truecrypt, etc, where you can mount the map as a container with his own driveletter.
Berny Boss said:
I have the same problem for Android.
The only programs I found that you can use are secretvault pro en FileCrypter.
I use the last one. It encrypts the folder you want, but it's a little bit slow for maps above 100 MB.
I don't understand that with more than 250.000 apps, nobody comes out with a program like truecrypt, etc, where you can mount the map as a container with his own driveletter.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
technical limits maybe?
Just manually encrypting folders and files might be no problem, but truecrypt is different. files from a truecrypt storage are decrypted in memory and there's a driver that makes the native file functions of the OS think that the files are coming from a real storage.
I don't think you can develop such drivers for Android, at least not on non-rooted phones. It would have been possible on Windows Mobile. I mean, it has existed already: SafeGuard for instance.
Thank you very much for your suggestions
I tried both Filecrypter and secretvault pro on Samsung Galaxy S, but encrypted files were visible on gallery!!.
This was after encrypting the folder.
Does android 2.2 saves gallery viewed files in any cache or tmp folder?
Yes we are in a desperate need for encrypted containers, which can store anything.
If we loose phone, nobody will return it, we need to safeguard our personel files.
Let the thief format the sdcard and use it.
Encrypted Container for Android
Hi,
I did a project for a client implementing encrypted container for the android phone. Unfortunately I can't release any source. But, if somebody is willing to recreate this I can guide them. PM me for details.
i know this post is old, but is there anything available today that can mount veracrypt containers? i know of eds but its just awful. android should do this by now.

Turning any android phone/tablet into a raspberry pi

Hi guys!
I'm a software developer for some years now, and today I got a request if I could hack any tablet/phone to use it like a raspberry pi or something similar. Basically, the question is, if I can install & run whatever I want on it, like it's the case on the raspberry pi.
I don't fully understand the differences between a raspberry pi-like SoC with an attached touchscreen and an android phone/tablet, so I'm very interested in this topic.
Would you maybe be so kind and answer me some basic questions?
- Is it possible to extract the drivers, for example for the GPU or the touch screen, from a rooted device? If yes, is it hard? Is it always the same, or a completely different process for every different GPU/tochscreen etc?
- Is it possible to use those drivers with the normal linux kernel & any distro I like to use?
- In order to swap android with my linux distribution of choice, what will I actually need to replace, or to do in general? I know that a typical android phone/tablet's internal storage is usually formatted with different partitions, like the bootloader, system oder data partition,
- Will I need to reformat the internal storage and even install a different bootloader? Or is the preinstalled bootloader usually able to boot any system, not just android?
Of course you don't have to answer all the questions. I'm grateful for any answer that helps me in one of those questions or provides me some information I might want to know in this topic.
Thank you very much

cifs.ko module / Busybox / mounting CIFS shares

Hello all. In the last 24 hours I've racked my head against a wall and I can't seem to get past this. So some pointers would be very welcome.
Backstory - Been doing backups of Titanium Backup onto my Nexus 9 (16GB internal storage) and I'm running into problems with running out of storage space. So I thought I'd look into doing a CIFS share mountpoint to my tablet and backup directly to the CIFS shares on my FreeNAS box. I figure a couple TB of storage is enough to store my Titanium Backups.
So first I read about CIFS Manager. Seems it may be discontinued or not functional on Lollipop.
Then I read about Busybox. Very cool, I think I'd marry Busybox if it was a woman. It seems so amazing I bought the Busybox Pro version.
So I tried to mount the CIFS/SMB share but I keep getting the dreaded "no device found" which means the cifs.ko isn't loaded. Apparently it's not in OS by default, so I need to compile it. (I'm not against someone giving me the .ko file, but I'd rather learn how to fish for myself than expect someone to give me a fish when I'm hungry) I have no clue how to compile it or even where to start to get a resemblance of the necessary steps. My experience is mostly Windows and FreeBSD, with only enough knowledge of linux to be very dangerous. I've tried searching all over for some kind of guide, pointers on what files I need to get, where to go to compile, etc but there seems to be nobody out there with any kind of good guide, even an outdated one I could use to fill in the blanks. I was hoping to put together a fairly detailed guide that includes steps on how to compile the cifs.ko yourself from source as well as mount your share on the device for whatever purposes you desire. But I'm finding that there is basically no info online on how to do this, where the source is, how to compile it, etc. If you know how to do this and are willing to help me write the guide (I've written quite a few articles on FreeNAS and ZFS) I'd be more than happy to give you some credit. I have no doubt lots of people will use the document once it is created.
Alternatively I considered doing the same with NFS but again I'd need to compile the nfs.ko module, so I'm stuck at the same point there.
Anyone have any pointers on how to do this? Or, anyone have any other options that will work just as well that allow me to not have to store the actual titanium backup files locally?
About the only thing I can find is someone saying that you need a Linux VM, the kernel sources, sdk, some knowledge in unix, and patience. But hell, I don't know if by saying "kernel sources" they are talking about the kernel source for the Linux VM or the Android OS I'm running (or both), if the SDK is referring to the Android SDK or not, etc.
Thanks in advance!
Joshy8 said:
Or, anyone have any other options that will work just as well that allow me to not have to store the actual titanium backup files locally?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was in the same boat as you a few years back. Basically I would root, find a kernel that had the CIFS module, then use CIFS Manager to mount the shares. I would also use rsync & busybox. This stuff is tricky. The command to get Android to mount the shares, the CIFS module and kernel always has to be up to date, changes in busybox, etc.. I dreaded Android system updates. It starts to feel like a Rube Goldberg machine.
I started using an app called FolderSync (there's a paid version, too) and never looked back. It works quietly in the background and have never had any problem with it. It's one of the best apps on Android.
I do thank you for the advice, but that's how I've been doing backups for several years. I bought it back when the original Droid phone came out.
However in this case, since my tablet has only 16GB of internal memory and you can't easily have permanently attached external storage I'm forced to come up with an alternative of some kind.
I have had some problems lately with FolderSync. Not sure exactly what the problem is, but FolderSync seems to have issues from time to time and it gets stuck on random files and never finishes, even if left to complete for several days. I've had this issue randomly on 3 different devices, and one of my friends that also uses FolderSync has had the same issue on his. So I'm pretty sure there's a bug of some kind in FolderSync that sometimes breaks it.
Anyway, since my tablet has only 16GB of internal memory and you can't easily have permanently attached external storage I'm forced to come up with an alternative where the data is never actually stored on the device itself. :/
I know this isn't the answer you were looking for, but have you seen these:
http://www.meenova.com/st/p/mrg2.html
It's the closest thing I've found to convenient usable external storage.
Sent from my Nexus 9
The Fire-Ice kernel (http://forum.xda-developers.com/nexus-9/orig-development/kernel-fire-ice-t2930451) supports CIFS. I use it to connect to my SAMBA linux server. I also did the following, not sure if both of these are necessary: set SELinux to permissive with SELinux Mode Changer, and use the "patched" version of CIFS Manager (found on this forum).
I'm still hoping somebody will just write or cross-compile a FUSE module (like SMBnetFS) that works on all rooted devices, so we don't have to rely on custom kernels/modules anymore...
Since you asked for alternatives, you can also just get an OTG cable and hook up a USB stick or external HD to your phone (needs root and an app like StickMount).
Thanks for the reply. Been a bit busy with life stuff and just finally got to sit back down and look at this again.
I agree that a FUSE module would be useful for something like this. I don't have a need for high performance with regards to this problem, so a FUSE module would seem very appropriate.
I do have an OTG cable and I do have a 64GB thumbdrive I can use. I was just hoping for something that was a little non-obtrusive and passive so that I'm not actively having to be involved in the backup process itself. As soon as someone in the meat-world has to take active steps to make a backup every time, that's when backups typically stop happening, and then the next thing that happens is data loss. So I'm trying to remove myself from the equation as much as possible.

G925F Expose storage as mountable USB

Hello Droids
I have a strainge special problem Im working on for several weeks. I bougth the 64GB version of the S6 Edge after a few days with the plan to cut just 40GB as a bootable USB storage using DriveDroid or something similar.
Now Im not able to get my device G925FXXU2COH2 with Android 5.1.1 rooted (or am not willing to for loosing KNOX waranty) so I thought about several possibilities to not just get the device rooted in general but simply give the App (DriveDroid or something else) enougth rights to modify the USB channel.
Is it possible in any way to give the App that rights?
Would it help just to move it into System directory in any way?
Could i just go into recovery mode and pl,ace it there while in ADB shell?
Would it especialy possible to place it anyway into the recovery partition and then tell the phone to make a factory reset?
Could that for example be done using the service menu build into the Samsung Galaxy?
Im a developer with more or less good knowledge of working an Android and while developing I often need to stay at someone elses PC (company, presentation at customer and so on) so I thought if it would be nice to cary a bootable version of Ubuntu at my phone as my working environment. Thats all, no more no less
I would be very happy if someone could solve this for me
Best Regards

Categories

Resources