[Q] Partition or file-system problem - Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Hi, I flashed stock I9100G 4.1.2 firmware and rooted it. Now I want to dump /system folder's files to my PC. I used adb pull /system system/ but it says "skipping special files" and doesn't copy lots of files. I realized that there are many 0.00 byte files in /system directories, also other root directories (look attachment picture to see them).
How to fix this? I'd appreciate to hear your solutions.
Thanks.

**Bump**
Need help...

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[Q] /system folder read only ?

Copying a font in /system/fonts resulted in a 'read only file system' error.
Googling around looks that the /system folder is mounted read only.
How can I (temporarily) set this folder to read/write ?
By using a rooted file explorer or Super Manager .
jje
Thanks, this works.
When I set /shystem to r/w I can manipulate files / copy files to this folder even from an SSH terminal from my Mac.
Worked extremely well!
Thanks for the help guys. I had installed Beans Stock Rom and lost my VVM support. The market even said my device was not compatible. Tried all prior versions of VVM and none worked until I got this file and used Root Explorer to install it and set permissions as described. Thanks heavens.

Setting system root as RW default

Hey there?
I've got a question which I can't seem to find anywhere else and YES I have searched this forum and google. However, I may miss it.
Anyway, I've mapped my android phone as a network drive using Samba and changed the smb.conf file to show the System Root directory as well. However, system root is default set as R/O so to mange files USING my computer I need to change the permission to R/W using a file manager (such as root explorer). This is annoying, as I have to keep doing this in order to write to certail directories.
What I wish to do is create a massive guide on all of this to help out the community, however I need one little bit of information.
I would like the / directory (root) to be mounted as R/W as default so that I can quickly edit files on my PC without having to constantly change it to R/O.
If this has been answered before, I do apologize.
Thanks in advance.
Regards,
xxSHABSxx
EDIT:
To make things a bit clearer.
I want something that will automatically mount my phone's root dir into rw upon boot, without custom apps/having to manually mount as rw everytime it reboots. And yes I understand there are apps that do this.
Yes, the root file system is read-only, but it's also volatile. It's restored from the initramfs in the boot image each time you reboot the phone, so only mounting it writeable, doesn't do you very much anyway.
In /init.rc you find a line:
Code:
mount rootfs rootfs / ro remount
This remounts your root read-only. Remove this, and it'll stay writeable. But again, all edits to the root file system are volatile. To change this, you must flash a new boot.img
An easier way would be a root-app remounting it writable again after boot.
kuisma said:
Yes, the root file system is read-only, but it's also volatile. It's restored from the initramfs in the boot image each time you reboot the phone, so only mounting it writeable, doesn't do you very much anyway.
In /init.rc you find a line:
Code:
mount rootfs rootfs / ro remount
This remounts your root read-only. Remove this, and it's stay writeable. But again, all edits to the root file system are volatile. To change this, you must flash a new boot.img
An easier way would be a root-app remounting it writable again after boot.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ahh I figured as much, since Google didn't offer any solutions to me. And flashing is way much more effort than simply having an app that does it for you.
Anyway thanks for the reply!
xxshabsxx said:
Ahh I figured as much, since Google didn't offer any solutions to me. And flashing is way much more effort than simply having an app that does it for you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Or do like I did, move the root to a real ext3 non-volatile file system instead.

[Q]Need Help! Phone cant connect to carrier, no lockscreen, no power button menu

Hello xda!!
I own a GS3 i9300 and im a noob at android's and codings.
When I start the phone, I have no IMEI, cant see any carrier, I don't have lock screen and I don't have that power menu.
The only method I am using to correct this whole issue is :
-Go into Root Explorer
-Go to "/system/efs
-Copy the whole "Efs" directory
-Paste on /Efs
and voilá, it starts to work. I get everything back. The problem is I want this to be permanent, like a normal Phone. I have a rooted stock Rom. This might be simple to solve but I really don't know.
Thanks
raixa said:
Hello xda!!
I own a GS3 i9300 and im a noob at android's and codings.
When I start the phone, I have no IMEI,
Restore your backed up EFS folder .
Fix Permissions see sticky .
IMEI/ EFS see multiple posts on the subject .
jje
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've used fix permissions but i cant restore any EFS cause EFS pro says this "efs pro can't locate mount point"
Should I flash a new firmware and restore the EFS?
Just flashed stock firmware and Efs problem still continue.
I have the EFS backup.
The problem is that every single time my device reboots, the EFS folder appears, but has nothing inside. I can´t change permissions on the folder because root explorer wont let me.
Any solution?
raixa said:
Just flashed stock firmware and Efs problem still continue.
I have the EFS backup.
The problem is that every single time my device reboots, the EFS folder appears, but has nothing inside. I can´t change permissions on the folder because root explorer wont let me.
Any solution?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No firmware (stock or custom) modifies efs partition when flashed. If it was broken before, it will be when you flash stock firmware also.
You will need root access to fix this problem. If I had this problem I would flash a rom with root, busybox and as no other mods to be on the safe side (or root and install busybox on the stock one). Try to make a new file in /efs (use a file manager with root access) and reboot . The file should be there after restart. If it is the the phone is ok and you will just need to restore the backup. If it isn't you will need help from someone with more experience.
Thanks dav_991.
Just tried your solution but after the restart, there's nothing on /efs again.
One thing I noticed is that when I enter /efs folder its "mounted like R/W", but if I switch to "Mount R/O" and I get out of Root explorer, some files appear on the Efs folder. Thing is every time I restart the phone it appears mounted as R/W.
raixa said:
Thanks dav_991.
Just tried your solution but after the restart, there's nothing on /efs again.
One thing I noticed is that when I enter /efs folder its "mounted like R/W", but if I switch to "Mount R/O" and I get out of Root explorer, some files appear on the Efs folder. Thing is every time I restart the phone it appears mounted as R/W.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
On my s3 /efs is mounted as rw by default. I do not think that this is related to your problem. To see which partition (and how) is mounted as /efs, in terminal emulator type (and grant permission when asked):
Code:
su
cat /proc/mounts | grep /efs
It should look like:
Code:
/dev/block/mmcblk0p3 /efs ext4 rw,nosuid,nodev,noatime,barrier=1,journal_async_commit,data=ordered 0 0
Yot could also post the files that are in the efs partition before and after you mounted as ro with command:
Code:
ls -la /efs >/sdcard/efs_list.txt
In phone memory you will get a file named efs_list.txt with the names of the files (every time you run the command the file is overriten, take this in consideration. Also be careful not to misspell something, you could overrite something you need).
I did some more research and ended up being the /Efs folder that wasn't mounted.
Managed to solve it by the terminal, adding the SU command.
Thanks everyone.
Best Regards,
Luis Matos

Deleted /system/vendor folder using ES File Manager Explorer

Hello,
I have Lenovo S720 running on Android 4.0.4 that I recently factory reset because It has only few little internal storage (~1,4 GB), and cannot support many updating apps.
After I do that, whats left in the internal storage is about 500 MB of storage, the rest being taken up by the system (I suppose).
I installed Framaroot to root the device, then System App Uninstaller (ROOT) and ES File Explorer.
First, I try to uninstall any bloatware with the System App Uninstaller -> I didn't get much free internal storage.
Then, I use ES File Explorer to seek, which folder took up the most space.
-> One of the is /system/vendor folder.
-> So, I copied that folder to /mnt/sdcard/backupsys/ (or /sdcard/backupsys/ [little bit forget]), Thinking it would come in handy later.
-> Then, I (foolishly) proceed to delete the folder using the root privileges .
-> It took a moment until all of my app start crashing (including the ES File Explorer!).
-> I turned-off the device, and now it still stuck in the (what I think as) "bootloop" mode.
Fortunately I still can communicate to the phone using adb tools, which I have a little knowledge of. But, the pm and am command cannot function well.
Now, I'm only thinking about moving back the vendor folder from /mnt/sdcard to the /system folder.
But I encounter some problem:
1) I can't (& don't know how to) write to the /system
2) I can't (& don't know how to) read from the /sdcard
- command 'ls' inside this dir returned nothing.
Glad I have the "su" tools from the Framaroot. I searched on the Internet and it seems the problem can be solved with mount tools, but I don't know how.
ls -la tools on root (/) return:
(other dir)
root /system ,,,,,,,,,,other info,,,,,,,
system /sdcard ,,,,,,,,,,other info,,,,,,,
(other dir)
So maybe because I can't gain system account, I can't access the folder and read it...
I try to hard-reset in the recovery mode, but I can't select the options! (I can move the selector with volume up/down) but I cant click it with the power button!
The phone seems to be worse every second.
My main question is: can I recover my phone (copying the vendor folder back) using command tools on my development computer? Or is there any other ways?
I'm willing to install any custom ROM best suited to my phone.
Thanks in advance.
Hello,
Welcome to XDA.
If you have a copy of what you deleted or can get it from somewhere and you want to adb push your missing files and folders back to your device then you need to have the files you want to push stored on your PC and push them from there to the device. For instructions on how to use adb read through the thread linked below and go from there.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2141817
If you have further questions or need further help with using adb then you can post in the Q&A forum linked below:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/android/help

Requesting help with adaptable storage file permissions

Ive been able to decrypt adoptable storage and copy files over from my pc, however i had to chown the media folder to be able to write.
Now on android in a normal file manager the files are 0 bytes and not readable.
I can read them and open them normally with ghost browser as root but not in the stock file manager.
Ive tried to chown -R them back to media_rw:media_rw or system:media_rw but no avail
Somehow I was able to change one folder(including files) back in a test (cant remember how)
Does anyone know if I need to change the files in /mnt/expand/<uuid> or /sdcard ?
KenzooW said:
so does it works?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It didnt work for me, at least not yet because i gave up as it was taking to much time there are a few folders with sym links,
Code:
/mnt/expand/<uuid>
/sdcard/
/storage/emulated
/data/media
need to compare all the permissions sometime and replicate it.. It was taking to much time and i found another solution which was to move the folders to a writeable directory after mounting (no change in permissions)
Then on the phone moving it to the right place in ghost file manager. Android has separated the permissions for apps and what not.
Overall its easier just to copy via OTG.
One thing I forgot to mention, that if you're on Linux with the decrypted sd card mounted, you can copy files over directly to the media folder (as #root) without "chown"ing.
I didnt try this but i think that it may work that way since you're not altering existing permission settings

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