Azpen A743 - Root or help with hosts file - Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Like everyone else, I picked this Azpen A743 up at Microcenter for $20. It was advertised as having 5.1, but came with 6.0.1. I bought it to stream music from my Asus router with samba share drive. Other than that, just plan to use Google News, weather app, and light web browsing. Tried a couple rooting methods but no luck. Reluctantly tried Kingo Root, but it never finished the process. (I've read these devices come preloaded with malware, so some more from kingo root won't hurt). From what I've read and searched, there isn't any custom recovery for this tablet. Anyone know how to root it? I did manage from stock recovery to sideload SuperUser.apk, but it doesn't work.
I have USB debugging on, and bootloader unlocked.
Specs are: Allwinner 1.3 GHz A33 4core
The recovery lists the tablet as:
A33_86v/astar_xr819/astar-xr819
6.0.1/MOB30R/20171221
and firmware version v6.0rc3 (I have found references to OxygenOS for that FW version)
If there is not a root method, is there a way to alter/replace the hosts file? I would like to transfer the hosts file from my phone generated by adaway. I have copied my phone's hosts file and tried:
adb reboot download - reboots to OS, doen't seem to have a download mode, but it would almost have to in order to update the FW
adb reboot bootloader - boots to Azpen screen buring bootup, but just hangs
adb push - system read only
adb shell - cp hosts (read only)
adb shell, then su - SuperUser pops up saying ADB need SU access, grant it but nothing happens. can type, but nothing happens.
from recovery, if I mount /system, then device no longer detected by adb.
Didn't try any fastboot commands, scared of losing data, and I don't see anyway to back up the current FW
Also tried the Phoneixsuit software to install apks, but it didn't work
created my own update.zip - 255 error (or not verified even when using various methods to sign the .zip file-Sign-em, Auto-Sign)
Is there a way to create a .zip or apk that is signed that will copy the hosts file to /etc/hosts?
Any advice or guidance would be appreciated.

Have you had any luck since posting this? I'm trying to root the same device, but no luck so far.

Nope. Somehow managed to push Superuser to it, but still not rooted. SU app pops up asking for SU if "adb shell SU", can grant permission, but still nothing. Can't make permission changes to RW. I finally got fed up and tried flashing the wrong firmware to it, but even that wouldn't work. PhoenixSuit, PhoenixProUSB, PhoenixCard would not work to flash different firmware... and no response from Azpen about lollipop firmware or any firmware for that matter. Won't return emails or answer the phone.
I don't know if by pulling the /system folder ,making changes, then using a tool like Dragonface to build a prerooted image would work or not. Can't really do anything without the right firmware for the device.... and I'm not counting on that happening.
This is a good place for info on A33 info and tools:
http://forum.gsmhosting.com/vbb/f906/
I finally got widgets to update after a month of tinkering.... everyday it tells me the SD card is corrupt... other than all of the above, it is a decent little tablet for the $20.

Related

No 'su' binary on rooted tablet

Hello:
I'm a buyer of an Iview 760TPC (chinese 1.3Mpx camera version).
The reason I'm writing is because its some days reading and trying things to get everything unlocked, and seems that is really impossible to flash a new firmware or to get root. I'm getting really mad.
- I have managed to get adb recognize the tablet on linux and on windows. Despite of that, I get "adbd cannot run on production builds".
- If I do an 'adb shell', I get a prompt (with no superuser privileges). If I try to 'su', I get a "Passwd:" prompt , so I cannot get a superuser prompt to remount the filesystems, neither push any file to /system.
Browsing, I see there's no 'su' on /system/bin but there's on /system/xbin. Is a read-only filesystem and I cannot push anything.
- I installed root explorer but cannot mount R/W the filesystems.
- Installed Busybox installer. Says that the tablet is rooted, but when I try to install busybox, says that I have not permissions. Same if I try one of the upgrade menus of superuser. There are not privileges.
- I tried many times, to flash a firmware with the livesuit method, but the tablet is not being recognized. When I do the combination to enter the flashing mode, it boots a like a recovery with 4 options:
1) erase user data partition
2) enter adfu
3) upgrade firmware from sdcard
4) exit menu
I'm interested in the 3er option, but I can't find any information of the process itself (where to put the firmware, if its the same img as with the livesuit method, and what name needs to have the file)
There's also an ADFU mode, that I don't understand, but windows recognizes a new device when I enter there (but there's no driver or information I can found). The screen gets like a bit of white color, and the only way to exit from there is to press home+power buttons without the usb cable.
I've tried superoneclick but it doesn't work because there's not 'su' binary. Same happens with the installers of the CWM, not working because there's no 'su' (so I could flash a file with any kind of name)
Any help would be aprecciated. Sorry for my engrish and for asking so much, but I don't know how to proceed ;-)
Thanks
What version of Android is the device running? You could try manually pushing an exploit binary (e.g. zergrush) onto the device and executing to get temp root, at which point you should be able to mount /system as R/W and then push the su binary to /system/bin
The exploit binary to use would depend on the version of Android though. zergrush is for 2.3 I think (maybe 2.3.something). For early versions of ICS (4.0), there is mempodroid (might have spelt that wrong).
EDIT: Also, everything you can do over ADB, you could do by installing SSHDroid on the device and connecting via SSH from a computer.
Thanks a lot for your answer SifJar:
The tablet comes with ICS 4.0.3 and 3.0.8 kernel.
Superoneclick has the psneuter and zergRush exploits(neither of those seem to work for me).
Found this thread:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1461736
Edit: It does not work for me:
./adb shell
[email protected]:/ $ chmod 777 /data/local/mempodroid
[email protected]:/ $ /data/local/mempodroid 0xd9ec 0xaf47 sh
/system/bin/sh: /data/local/mempodroid: not executable: magic 7F45
Thanks
Installed SSHDroid from the Play Store, but does not work either.
I get:
Can't generate RSA keys: sh <stdin>[1]: /data/data/berserker.android.apps.sshdroid/dropbear/dropbearkey: not executable: magic 7F45
Don't really know what else can I do.
Thanks
mempodroid requires a different offset for each device. "0xd9ec 0xaf47 sh" is for the Eee Pad Transformer Prime. You need to get the right offset for your device. You can try this to do that: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1612591
EDIT: But it looks like your device may not be able to run standard Android binaries, which would be quite an inconvenience for trying to root it.
SifJar said:
mempodroid requires a different offset for each device. "0xd9ec 0xaf47 sh" is for the Eee Pad Transformer Prime. You need to get the right offset for your device. You can try this to do that: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1612591
EDIT: But it looks like your device may not be able to run standard Android binaries, which would be quite an inconvenience for trying to root it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think I should reflash a new firmware from that recovery that has from factory, but there's no way I can do it. I mean, it is supposed to have an special mode that you enter with a button combination and to flash then with livesuit, but in this chinese clone, does not seem to work that combination of buttons.
From the recovery, ADFU seems to mean Actions Device Firmware Update. There's some information here http://wiki.s1mp3.org/USB_modes
- If I put the device in ADFU mode, windows ask for an USB driver (that I don't have or does not exist either)
- Another thing. There's a flashing from sdcard, that seems to support, but there's no information or manual of where is supposed to put the firmware, the name of the file or if it needs to be zipped (and what file/s inside and names),...
Thanks
It's possible the flashing from sd card supports standard update .ZIPs. You could try this one, it's a ZIP that should work for rooting most Android devices I believe. Superuser.zip
(This is from a topic on the HTC Explorer phone, but there is nothing specific to that phone in the ZIP as far as I know)
EDIT: This ZIP doesn't overwrite the firmware or anything, all it does is add su, busybox and Superuser to the existing /system partition.
EDIT: If selecting the "Update firmware from SD card" option doesn't give the option to browse for a ZIP, rename it to "update.zip" and place it in the root of the card and try again.
SifJar said:
It's possible the flashing from sd card supports standard update .ZIPs. You could try this one, it's a ZIP that should work for rooting most Android devices I believe. Superuser.zip
(This is from a topic on the HTC Explorer phone, but there is nothing specific to that phone in the ZIP as far as I know)
EDIT: This ZIP doesn't overwrite the firmware or anything, all it does is add su, busybox and Superuser to the existing /system partition.
EDIT: If selecting the "Update firmware from SD card" option doesn't give the option to browse for a ZIP, rename it to "update.zip" and place it in the root of the card and try again.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks a lot. Does not have a browsing option so I need to know the needed name. Does not seem to work with the update.zip method
Does it try to install update.zip and give an error or does it say there is no update on the SD card?
Also, can you try and extract the su binary you said is in /system/xbin and post it here? There's something I would like to check.
EDIT: From adb shell, type the following, without quotes, "cat /proc/cpuinfo" and post the output here please
EDIT: Another silly suggestion - you could try guessing the password su asks you for. Maybe it's something obvious like "root" or "admin".
SifJar said:
Does it try to install update.zip and give an error or does it say there is no update on the SD card?
Also, can you try and extract the su binary you said is in /system/xbin and post it here? There's something I would like to check.
EDIT: From adb shell, type the following, without quotes, "cat /proc/cpuinfo" and post the output here please
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Seems that it does not even try to update, no error message, nothing. I tried putting the update.zip in both /sdcard (internal sdcard) and /sd-ext (microsd)
Code:
[email protected]:/ $ cat /proc/cpuinfo
system type : actions-atv5201
processor : 0
cpu model : MIPS 74Kc V5.0 FPU V0.0
BogoMIPS : 719.25
wait instruction : yes
microsecond timers : yes
tlb_entries : 32
extra interrupt vector : yes
hardware watchpoint : yes, count: 4, address/irw mask: [0x0000, 0x0000, 0x0460, 0x0868]
ASEs implemented : mips16 dsp
shadow register sets : 1
core : 0
VCED exceptions : not available
VCEI exceptions : not available
I have attached the 'su' binary from /system/xbin
Also:
Code:
$file su
su: ELF 32-bit LSB executable, MIPS, MIPS32 rel2 version 1 (SYSV), dynamically linked (uses shared libs), with unknown capability 0xf41 = 0x756e6700, with unknown capability 0x70100 = 0x1040000, stripped
But the table description of the manufacturer, says that has an Allwinner A10 (Cortex A8). Does not seem to be true, right?
Thanks
Looks like a MIPS processor then, not an ARM as most android devices have. That explains why exploit don't run and SSH didn't work, both use code compiled for ARM processors. It also means a standard su binary won't work on that device. You'll need one compiled for MIPS.
Does the update from sd card give any sort of error?
No. It does not say anything. I'll try to find the right update.zip for the MIPS architecture. Perhaps it could work.
Edit: Found this https://rapidshare.com/files/2288417520/Superuser-3.0.7-mips32r2-ics_signed.zip , but does not seem that I can flash it from the recovery with the update.zip method
Thanks a lot Sifjar
I'm afraid I'm now out of suggestions. The last piece of advice I can give is try and find an official update for the tablet from the manufacturer and investigate the format of that update, to try and identify how an update should be formatted/named for your device.
Thank you SifJar. You helped me a lot to find what happens with this tablet ;-)
I've read from more people, buying Allwiner A10 tablets on efox, and receiving different ones (lower specs and usually MIPS based). I'd not recommend to buy to this seller because it does not even answer your questions or does give you support.
I'm pretty sure, that could be one of the clones of the Ainol Novo7 Paladin/Basic. I'll try to find it
dreamer_ said:
Thank you SifJar. You helped me a lot to find what happens with this tablet ;-)
I've read from more people, buying Allwiner A10 tablets on efox, and receiving different ones (lower specs and usually MIPS based). I'd not recommend to buy to this seller because it does not even answer your questions or does give you support.
I'm pretty sure, that could be one of the clones of the Ainol Novo7 Paladin/Basic. I'll try to find it
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well I believe from a bit of reading about the Ainol tablet you should be able to type "adb remount" and then "adb root" to get root access from adb on that tablet. Then you can push a MIPS su binary to the device and be done with it. But it depends how close a clone it is whether the same will be true for your tablet I guess.
EDIT: Have you found any way to access a fastboot mode? (Possibly the command "adb reboot bootloader" would work) If the bootloader isn't locked, you may be able to extract the system.img, root the img and then flash it back with fastboot. Although that is something I have only heard about, I have no experience in how one would go about rooting the system.img. (Extracting it from the phone and flashing back isn't overly hard).
I have tried both things with no success. The remount, fails and I don't have root access then (and R/O Filesystems)
adb reboot bootloader, just reboots the device
I have found a post from a guy http://tabletrepublic.com/forum/other-tablets/actions-cpu-android-tablet-actions-atm7013-1-3ghz-cpu-2087.html#post20776, that seems to have my same tablet (or both tablets seem to be the same MIPS based).
I still think that could be a novo 7 basic/paladin clone and it does have the same recovery and the DFU mode. I'm downloading the tools and FW from the paladin, but seems to be impossible to find anything more about my tablet.
Thanks
dreamer_ said:
I have tried both things with no success. The remount, fails and I don't have root access then (and R/O Filesystems)
adb reboot bootloader, just reboots the device
I have found a post from a guy http://tabletrepublic.com/forum/oth...ctions-atm7013-1-3ghz-cpu-2087.html#post20776, that seems to have my same tablet (or both tablets seem to be the same MIPS based).
I still think that could be a novo 7 basic/paladin clone and it does have the same recovery and the DFU mode. I'm downloading the tools and FW from the paladin, but seems to be impossible to find anything more about my tablet.
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is one of the big issues with China based devices. Not only is it have really limited development they tend to use none standard hardware so none of the current things work on it. Then toss in the fact that the hardware is not always what it is said to be.
Sent from my SGH-I897 using Tapatalk 2
The USB drivers for the novo paladin, didn't work for me....If I only could flash a CWM recovery for my tablet, perhaps I could then flash the superuser.zip with the 'su' binary that SifJar said.
zelendel said:
This is one of the big issues with China based devices. Not only is it have really limited development they tend to use none standard hardware so none of the current things work on it. Then toss in the fact that the hardware is not always what it is said to be.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes...my problem has been mainly that in the efox website, they are basically lying you in the product description, and selling a thing that is not true.
Casually, there's also an IVIEW tablet on the market, exactly like mine, made only for the chinese market (without the IVIEW letters and 1.3mpx camera)...and that was what I thought I bought, a chinese IVEW (and my mistake)
You really need to see the cpuinfo to see that, and not everybody will do it....
Thanks
If you download this: usbview.zip
You can use it to find the vendor ID (app shows it as IdVendor) for your device (put it in the DFU mode thing first), and then you could try using fastboot and specifying the vendor ID with -i argument, it might work without drivers then (not sure if this is right, but I think something similar was done with the Kindle Fire)
just try something like
Code:
fastboot -i 0xFFFF devices
replacing 0xFFFF with the vendor ID from that app, to see if it detects it at all
Thanks. Does not seem to return anything (a return). It works with '-i device' at the end of the line.
Code:
fastboot.exe devices -i 0x10D6
ADB does give me this:
Code:
c:\sonec>ADB\adb.exe devices
List of devices attached
Actions Semi. 23711DF4 device

[Q] Pyle PTBL102BCD tablet has only partial ROOT

Have a strange one I don't know how to fix. Purchased a Pyle PTBL102BCD tablet for the Mrs. to use basically as an ebook reader (according to About, running 4.2.2). When it came in I started sideloading apps to prepare it for her (I do not have a Google account), and searched on the Net about rooting the device. Found a one-click that worked with a different Pyle tablet, so I gave it a shot.
Now I have root access _only_ through the adb shell. None of the apps (including Superuser.apk itself as tested by updating /system/bin/su) can get root access, yet I have no problem running root through an adb shell - remounted file systems, even performed an su which is the only instance Superuser.apk's log shows. Root access in the shell remains between reboots, so it's not a temporary root.
If the adb shell has root, I _should_ be able to use it to grant access to everything else, and I've followed a few different "manual" root instructions (having different permission settings for su and busybox), with no joy. So long as I connect with a USB cable and type on the Windows machine, I'm god. On the tablet itself...not so much.
I hope that someone with a more intimate knowledge of Android internals can point me in the right direction for achieving root completely. Currently have Titanium Backup and ConnectBot (long java errors when I attempt to su there) installed to test root, Superuser v3.1.3 and su v3.1.1. Permissions on su are -rwsr-sr-x. And the human is confused.
Did you get anywhere with this? I have the same problem. What one-click did you use?
mfurlend said:
Did you get anywhere with this? I have the same problem. What one-click did you use?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Side note; REALLY hate the new forum software. With all the untrusted Google and Amazon javascript (which my company firewalls), it's a pain for me to even log in let alone post replies. (And I wonder if I'm the only person in the world sick to death of all the unnecessary ajax garbage...)
Anywho, used Kingo, rooted and unrooted a few times, until I finally acquired complete root on the thing. Once I did, I could run Samba, and once that worked, I could more easily transfer files and apks to the tablet.
Still don't understand why it was left in such a...weird...state - having root by default in adb is just a scary thing!
thanks for the information. I tried doing that but I encountered various problems. Eventually, after trying to do it manually, I totally screwed up the device. Now it won't boot.. I still have access to adb. I need to flash this thing. Do you know what the stock ROM is?
mfurlend said:
Do you know what the stock ROM is?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No...I can give you the Kernel version info (3.0.36+ [email protected] #48) and build number (rk3168_k11_4.2.2_v20131230), but other than that no clue.

[Q] Asus MemoPad Me102a. Stuck at the menu where you can choose the language

Hi everyone !
I've come to a problem involving quite a few (regretably stupid) steps.
I first tried to root my tablet with the kingo root app thingy, with a relative success. I was indeed able to get super-user access in an adb shell, but not grant acces to the apps that needs it when opening them. I may have been able to work around it, but here is not the problem.
My main goal was to delete some stock apps, and since i wasn't able to do it with another app i decided to do it manually.
steps involved :
adb shell
su
cd /system/app
and now my masterpiece :
rm Asus*
rm SetupWizard.*
and rm others less important
But unfortunatly the settings apk was hidden inside the Asus* crap (Probably AsusSettings.apk)
Until now, i was still able to use my tablet. Just unable to go to settings or anything, but obviously I found it quite anoying.
So there came my second masterpiece :
I booted into recovery, and did a factory reset.
Now, if i boot my tablet, i'm stuck at the language setup, and i can't go any further because when i want to continue it says that the setup wizard has stopped working. I can't connect the tablet with adb because I did this factory reset and I can't access the settings anymore.
I don't have a custom recovery, nor custom rom.
I anyone has a brilliant idea to solve my brilliant problem, he is more than welcome !
Cheers,
Guitou0
Reply
I found out how to resolve it.
From the begin I was trying to use the recovery to replace the entire firmware by its original (found on the Asus website).
For some reasons it didn't work, but what did work was flashing the system.img found inside the firmware package with fastboot.
fastboot oem unlock (not sure that it was necessary)
fastboot flash system (path to system image)/system.img
After some time, (230sec approximatly) i got an error message, but when i rebooted the tablet the missings apks where back.

Root... but not root?

Hi everyone. I have a tablet from a famous argentinian whose devices quality is not the best (Noblex). This tablet has an Intel redhookbay SoC (x86). I tried to root it with Framaroot with no success. I also tried with apps like Kingo Root and Kingroot (disgusting, but I had to try them to see if they worked). Nothing worked. So I looked for a custom recovery and I found this thread which helps redhookbay users having a temp recovery like "above" the fastboot menu. In my case, CWM didn't work because power button selected the recovery item, but also fastboot menu item, so it always rebooted. TWRP didn't work either because touchscreen doesn't seem to work when I choose it. So and idea came to my mind: I could make an OpenRecoveryScript to make a backup and flash SuperSU.
I used adb shell to see if I could write a file in cache partition without being root. Of course, it didn't work, but then I typed "su" because it came to my mind, and boom! I was root, and even without any prompt that asked me if I wanted to grant root access for adb. So I thought "great! I'll remount partitions as rw and update the binaries to SuperSU ones". But, I had a little problem called Operation not permitted. Yup, I couldn't remount because I'm not allowed.
So, what can I do in order to root this thing? I read something about adbd Insecure, but I don't have any app that manages root to use this.
I don't know what to do, please help me.
Thanks in advance.

[Q][Magisk Manager] rooting an unidentified tablet with android oreo 8.1 troubleshoot

Goodday,
I have been looking into rooting my android device for over a week now and was still not able to find how it can be done for an unidentified tablet.
I have an Allwinner T8 tablet (headunit) that runs oreo 8.1.0, theres no info availlable on this unit whatsoever, all i have is a detailled system information gathered by root checker, i can post the detaills if its required.
I've managed to make a full backup of my device using the adb backup command incase something goes wrong it can be reverted easily.
No custom recovery option availlable to flash.
Is it possible to root my device using the supersu zip without a custom recovery for example with adb using the command "adb flash"?
The most usefull guide for my situation i have come across is the magisk manager installation guide: ht tps://forum.xda-developers.com/apps/magisk/official-magisk-v7-universal-systemless-t3473445
This method requires me to have the stock boot image from my device, seeing i don't have root and cant just copy that file, where exactly can i find this file(whats the path to it)?
Is it possible to use adb command "adb root; adb pull ... " to retrieve this file? If not how can i get my hands on this file?
Please help me, i have spend many houres searching google and watching videos but all of wich are the easy methods that don't work for my tablet or require root or a custom recovery wich i cant install... pretty frustrating...
I think magisk manager is the only correct way to go for my problem
Also, if i remount my system or root with read&write rights using adb shell, is that the same as rooting my device?
if i can read and write into the system directory on my device then i should be set.
So what exactly is the diffrence between rooting my device and remounting my device/system as read/write?
anyone??

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