Database Info

using adb

I feel like an idiot. I keep reading posts and instructions on how to use the adb/adb shell. Everything I read seems to indicate that the knowledge on how to open the adb command window is something that any idiot should be able to do... So much so, that no one explains how! I must be missing something!
I have installed eclipse and the sdk, the ADT plugin, etc. I run adb.exe and a command window flashes on my screen and immediately fades away. I can't even read what was posted in the window.
I know I am missing something but I guess I am just too inexperienced to know what that is. I can't find anything on the web that will tell me what file to open or sequence of files to open to access the adb command window.
Someone please help out a hopeless nuub!
Thanks
I am running Windows Vista 64 and have installed the 64bitUSB drivers. I can open an emulator, I can run the terminal on my G1, have installed the JK modified r30 on my phone.

add the whole path to your sdk/tools folder to your windows environment path: (right click my computer, click properties, select "advanced" select "environment variables" and look for "Path" in the bottom list, select "Path" and click "edit" then at the end of the existing path info, add a semicolon, and then paste in the complete path to your sdk/tools folder, click save, and close all the windows.
now, goto start, run, and type cmd.exe, a command line window will appear, type "adb" and it should work.
cheers,
-- michael

you can also use google to search the forum when you are looking for 3 letter terms (the forum search function is 4+ characters)
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=site:http://forum.xda-developers.com/+android+adb
--M

you don't use adb by pressing adb.exe in the tools folder you use it with command prompt go to programs and to accessories and look for command prompt now you can use adb like adb remount and pull push so on with your phone connected to the pc can you see your phone in ddms you open it from the sdk tools folder where the adb.exe is and if you can use adb.exe to open command prompt it don't work for me ether

I'm guessing that when I get all the ADB info after typing "adb" in the command window that it is working correctly?

If you run adb with no args, it will simply return a short summary of available args and terminate. In Windows if the window is opened by a program using the command line rather than directly calling cmd.exe, it will automatically close when the program terminates. The solution is to use cmd and then adb from within that.

Jashsu - Thanks! that was what I needed to know! LOL I am such a noob!!!
I had access to adb all the damn time! I just didn't know it! DUH!
I now have Koush's auto rotating browser installed! AWESOME.
Thanks to all who responded! I am learning pretty quick. But, some things are just so commonly known by dev's that they just aren't explained very well.
I found a couple of books I'm going to purchase so I don't have to keep bugging all of you. But, you guys are the greatest. Thanks for the help!

adb help for noob

I posted this in another thread but got no response, this thread (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=502010&page=35)
maybe a new thread will help.
So this is my first venture into the whole ABD thing. I am trying to install the framework mod from Tazz for the HTC music player (as listed here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/show...5594&page=1277 post 12768).
Tazz mentions to “push this http://www.multiupload.com/1WWHXAUN6W
to system/ect/permissions then download and install htc music”
So, running my trusty Win7 machine I downloaded the SDK from the android development site, inserted the correct line in the path and viola, I can enter the CMD prompt and run the adb command successfully. Adb and adb shell both seem to work.
I followed the instructions from here: http://androidforums.com/developer-1...-commands.html and here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=502010 for the install.
My problem comes in when I try to push the file to the phone.
Fisrt dumb question is: what phone mode should I be in when running the adb? Standard running mode or booted to recovery? (I thought I read something about being in recovery but at that point it was all a blur).
I have the USB Debugging turned on so I think I am ok there.
I installed the SDK to my C:\Android directory.
I saved Tazz’s file to my C:\Android\Tools directory.
Here is my cmd text (maybe this is where I went wrong):
In the cmd window I CD’d to the C:\Android\Tools directory
adb push com.framework.htc.xml system/ect/permissions
After making sure that I was in the correct dir and all files were also located in the correct dir I am still getting an error, file or directory not found, or something like that.
Sorry for the long post. I figured this would be a good first step (my first adb experience) as it seems pretty benign in terms of me bricking anything but offering a good learning opportunity.
I am running a rooted Eris (KaosFroyo v36).
In looking things thru maybe I need a USB driver for the Eris?
any help is appreciated,
oh, my cmd prompt looks like sh-2# (or something like that)
Thanks

While it may be that you still need to download the appropriate drivers, it seems you are able to get root access so, this is likely not the case.
There are two things which stand out as potential issues in the steps you described. Fortunately, both are super easy.
First and foremost, make sure you have mounted the phone as "read-write."After you have cd'd to the tools folder type "adb remount" (without the quotes) and press enter. If successful, it should respond with "remount succeeded." Congrats, you have now mounted the phone as read-write.
Next, I see errors with your command. There should be a "/" before "system" and it should be "etc" not "ect." Specifically, your command should be:
adb push com.framework.htc.xml /system/etc/permissions/
[The above command of course, assumes that the name of the file you are pushing is indeed named "com.framework.htc.xml" and is in your tools folder.] You'll know it worked if the response in your command prompt indicates the speed and time it took for the push to take. For example, "1234kbps in 3.4 seconds". If you see something resembling that you should be all set. At this point you can reboot your phone and your changes should be in effect. Either unplug and reboot manually or just type "adb reboot" (without the quotes) and press enter.
In regard to your question about whether the phone can be in standard running mode or recovery... It depends on the level of root of the phone but, fully rooted and nand unlocked phones can be adb'd while in standard running mode. My EVO can and it is very likely your Eris can too.

I see
thanks OK.
typo's aside in the thread, my command was missing the / as you have described it. I also did not know about the remount thing. In my reading I thought that was just for the sd card. I will try and put all the pieces together when I get home tonight.
You are correct in that is the name of the file and I do have it in the /tools directory.
Thanks for the help, baby steps (I am learning)

No problem. We are/were all noobs at one point in our lives.
The term "mounting" has slightly different contextual meanings which can be confusing. First off, the /system/ folder is already "mounted" while using adb, however, it is mounted as read-only. So, if you are ever trying to push something to the phone and get an error back that says "mounted as read-only" you'll now know what went wrong. Simply type "adb remount"
and it puts the /system/ folder into read-write mode.
Bear in mind that upon phone reboot the /system/ folder automatically remounts into read-only mode so if you reboot and try to push another file you'll need to remember to "adb remount" again.
With regard to the sdcard "mounting" refers to whether the phone (sdcard) is mounted as a disk drive on your computer. You'll find that if this is the case many adb commands won't work because the sdcard can't be accessed by the phone while mounted on the computer. Therefore, always remember to connect your phone as "Charge Only" when adb'ing.

got it
That did the trick, worked like a charm. Thanks for the help and pointers. I have now pushed my first file...yeah for me!!
Thanks for your help and time.

glad your push worked
I am still trying to get SDK/ADB to connect to my Milestone XT720 phone. Have no idea of why they won't. Have tried all the usual suspects but nothing as of yet. NEED HELP!

Super Noob question

I am trying to get adb to work. I am doing it on a x64 vista system and I think I am getting the Path wrong. I am trying to get it to run like the page says to initialize it to read the device so I know it is working.
I can't get it to start from command prompt with out navigating to the directory it resides in. Is that right for the newer versions of ADB or am I just a monkey and can't figure out simple pathing?

I just made a folder in my c drive called ADB, and placed the entire folder with adb and the dll files required in it, along with superuser, busybox, etc.
Right click on command prompt and run as administrator.
once at system32 type: cd C:\ADB
then you will have navigated to the folder containing your ADB files.
your command prompt should now read: C:\ADB
then you can type: adb devices
it will say something about starting daemon services, and then list attached devices.
you are free to proceed with whatever instruction or operation you are doing after that.
also, make sure you have the drivers for the phone installed, or your computer wont recognize the android debugging bridge.

LowRentTechGuy said:
I am trying to get adb to work. I am doing it on a x64 vista system and I think I am getting the Path wrong. I am trying to get it to run like the page says to initialize it to read the device so I know it is working.
I can't get it to start from command prompt with out navigating to the directory it resides in. Is that right for the newer versions of ADB or am I just a monkey and can't figure out simple pathing?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Android Development is not for questions or Problems
Please post in the correct Forums
Moving to General

Well thanks for moving it, I will keep a closer eye on which forum I am browsing when I post.
Sent from my SCH-I510 using Tapatalk

(Help)

Well I Was Following This Guild: wiki.cyanogenmodTMobile_myTouch_4G:_Full_Update_Guide
I Have Gotten The SDK On The Computer Already,
I have Put All Files Into: "C:\android-sdk-windows\platform-tools"
Now I Have No Root, No VISIONary On The Phone (I Tried that Way First And It Failed On Me).
Now The Part Im Stuck Is At:
6. On the computer, open terminal and run the following commands:
"adb shell"
After I Type that into Terminal I Get "$" and im going crazy trying to find out what to do. (Just To Add Something In, Theres no Instructions On The Begging Of Step 6 By Doing "cd C:\android-sdk-windows\platform-tools" I Was Stuck on that for a good hour, and about the Not Mounting The SD Card "Charge Only") but nonetheless im stuck at Step 6 At The Shell part. I Would Love Some Assistance. Anymore Info I Will Add If You Need Me To.

timeformiles said:
Well I Was Following This Guild: wiki.cyanogenmodTMobile_myTouch_4G:_Full_Update_Guide
I Have Gotten The SDK On The Computer Already,
I have Put All Files Into: "C:\android-sdk-windows\platform-tools"
Now I Have No Root, No VISIONary On The Phone (I Tried that Way First And It Failed On Me).
Now The Part Im Stuck Is At:
6. On the computer, open terminal and run the following commands:
"adb shell"
After I Type that into Terminal I Get "$" and im going crazy trying to find out what to do. (Just To Add Something In, Theres no Instructions On The Begging Of Step 6 By Doing "cd C:\android-sdk-windows\platform-tools" I Was Stuck on that for a good hour, and about the Not Mounting The SD Card "Charge Only") but nonetheless im stuck at Step 6 At The Shell part. I Would Love Some Assistance. Anymore Info I Will Add If You Need Me To.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry im not familiar with the Windows setup of sdk to know what command to punch in. If you have $ it means no root access though.
Try typing in su to see if it changes to a #.
Sent from my HTC Glacier using xda premium

At which step are you exactly (Section and number please) ?
Could you add more details to your post :
- You have a MyTouch 4G or a Panache ?
- You are on Froyo or Gingerbread ?
Regards

Visionary failed = no temp root = no # in adb shell
What version software you have on the phone, you may need to downgrade first

Top cmds that you need to know

There are servel cmds which we can use
But I post only top 10 cmds to help that ones who need
###############
If I make a mistake so please reply with your suggestions
And if you want a cmd in the list .submit your reply with cmd and features ( full detail as you know.).
########cmds###########
For a lot of us, the fact that we can plug our Android phone or tablet into our computer and interact with it is a big plus. Besides the times when we've broken something and need to fix it, there are plenty of reasons why an advanced Android user would want to talk to his or her device. To do that, you need to have a few tools and know a few commands. That's what we're going to talk about today. Granted, this won't be the end-all be-all discussion of adb commands, but there are 10 basic commands everyone should know if they plan to get down and dirty with the command line.
The tools are easy. If you're a Mac or Linux user, you'll want to install the SDK as explained at the Android developers site. It's not hard, and you don't have the whole driver mess that Windows users do. Follow the directions and get things set up while I talk to the Windows using folks for a minute.
If you're using Windows, things are easier and harder at the same time. The tools themselves are the easy part. Download this file. Open the zip file and you'll see a folder named android-tools. Drag that folder somewhere easy to get to. Next, visit the manufacturers page for your device and install the adb and fastboot drivers for Windows. You'll need this so that your computer can talk to your Android device. If you hit a snag, visit the forums and somebody is bound to be able to help you through it.
Now that we're all on the same page, enable USB debugging on your device (see your devices manual if you need help finding it, and remember it was hidden in Android 4.2), and plug it in to your computer. Now skip past the break and let's begin!
1. The adb devices command
The adb devices command is the most important one of the bunch, as it's what is used to make sure your computer and Android device are communicating. That's why we're covering it first.
If you're a pro at the operating system on your computer, you'll want to add the directory with the Android tools to your path. If you're not, no worries. Just start up your terminal or command console and point it at the folder with the tools in it. This will be the file you downloaded earlier if you use Windows, or the platform-tools folder in the fully installed Android SDK. Windows users have another easy shortcut here, and can simply Shift + right click on the folder itself to open a console in the right spot. Mac and Linux users need to navigate there once the terminal is open, or install an extension for your file manager to do the same right click magic that's in Windows by default.
Once you're sure that you are in the right folder, type "adb devices" (without the quotes) at the command prompt. If you get a serial number, you're good to go! If you don't, make sure you're in the right folder and that you have the device driver installed correctly if you're using Windows. And be sure you have USB debugging turned on!
Now that we have everything set up, let's look at a few more commands.
2. The adb push command
If you want to move a file onto your Android device programmatically, you want to use the adb push command. You'll need to know a few parameters, namely the full path of the file you're pushing, and the full path to where you want to put it. Let's practice by placing a short video (in my case it's a poorly done cover of the Rick James tune Superfreak) into the Movies folder on your device storage.
I copied the superfreak.mp4 file into the android-tools folder so I didn't need to type out a long path to my desktop. I suggest you do the same. I jumped back to the command line and typed "adb push superfreak.mp4 /sdcard/Movies/" and the file copied itself to my Nexus 4, right in the Movies folder. If I hadn't dropped the file into my tools folder, I would have had to specify the full path to it -- something like C:\Users\Jerry\Desktop\superfreak.mp4. Either way works, but it's always easier to just drop the file into your tools folder and save the typing.
3. The adb pull command
If adb push sends files to your Android device, it stands to reason the adb pull command gets them out. That's exactly what it does, and it works the same way as the adb push command did. You need to know both the path of the file you want to pull off, as well as the path you want it placed into. You can leave the destination path blank and it will drop the file into your tools folder to make things easy.
In this example, I did it the hard way so you can see what it looks like. The path of the file on the device is "/sdcard/Movies/superfreak.mp4" and I put it on my Windows 8 desktop at "C:\Users\Jerry\Desktop". Again, the easy way it to just let it drop into your tools folder by not giving a destination, which would have been "adb pull /sdcard/Movies/superfreak.mp4". Remember your forwards slash for the Android side, and you'll have no problems here.
5. The adb reboot-bootloader and adb reboot recovery commands
Not only can you reboot your device, you can specify that it reboots to the bootloader. This is awfully handy, as sometimes those button combos are touchy, and if you have a lot of devices you can never remember them all. Some devices (the LG Optimus Black comes to mind) don't even a way to boot to the bootloader without this command. And once again, being able to use this command in a script is priceless. Doing it is easy, just type "adb reboot-bootloader" and hit the enter key.
Most devices can also boot to the recovery directly with the "adb reboot recovery" (note there is no hyphen in this one) and some can't. It won't hurt anything to try, and if yours can't nothing will happen.
6. The fastboot devices command
When you're working in the bootloader, adb no longer works. You're not yet booted into Android, and the debugging tools aren't active to communicate with. We use the fastboot command in it's place.
Fastboot is probably the most powerful tool available, and many devices don't have it enabled. If you're does, you need to be sure things are communicating. That's where the fastboot devices command comes into play. At the prompt, just type in "fastboot devices" and you should see a serial number, just like the adb devices command we looked at earlier.
If things aren't working and you are using Windows, you likely have a driver issue. Hit those forums for the answer.
7. The fastboot oem unlock command
The holy grail of Android commands, fastboot oem unlock does one thing, and one thing only -- unlocks your Nexus device (or an HTC device using their official tool). If you're using a phone from a different manufacturer, you have a different method of unlocking things -- maybe with ODIN or .sbf files -- and this won't apply to you. We're including it because even if you don't need it, it's an important part of Android's openness. Google doesn't care what we do with phones or tablets that we've bought, and include this easy way to crack them open. That's something you usually don't see from any tech company, and a big part of the reason why many of us choose Android.
Using it is easy enough. Once you've used fastboot devices to make sure everything is communicating, just type "fastboot oem unlock" at the prompt and hit enter. Look at your device, read carefully, and choose wisely.
Protip: Using "fastboot oem unlock" will erase everything on your device
8. The adb shell command
The adb shell command confuses a lot of folks. There are two ways to use it, one where you send a command to the device to run in its own command line shell, and one where you actually enter the device's command shell from your terminal. In the image above, I'm inside the device shell, listing the flies and folders on the device. Getting there is easy enough, just type "adb shell" and enter. Once inside, you can escalate yourself to root if you need to. I'll warn you, unless you're familiar with an ash or bash shell, you need to be careful here -- especially if you're root. Things can turn south quickly if you're not careful. If you're not familiar, ash and bash are command shells that a lot of folks use on their Linux or Mac computers. It's nothing like DOS.
The other method of using the adb shell command is in conjunction with one of those Ash commands your Android device can run. You'll often use it for more advanced tasks like changing permissions of files or folders, or running a script. Using it is easy -- "adb shell <command>". An example would be changing permissions on a file like so: "adb shell chmod 666 /data/somefile". As mentioned, be very careful running direct commands using these methods.
9. The adb install command
While adb push can copy files to our Android devices, adb install can actually install .apk files. Using it is similar to use the push command, because we need to provide the path to the file we're installing. That means it's always easier to just drop the app you're installing into your tools folder. Once you've got that path, you tell your device to sideload it like this: "adb install TheAppName.apk".
If you're updating an app, you use the -r switch: "adb install -r TheAppName.apk". There is also a -s switch which tries to install on the SD card if your ROM supports it, and the -l switch will forward lock the app (install it to /data/app-private). there are also some very advanced encryption switches, but those are best left for another article.
And finally, you can uninstall apps by their package name with "adb uninstall TheAppName.apk". Uninstall has a switch, too. The -k switch will uninstall the app but leave all the app data and cache in place.
10. The adb logcat command
The adb logcat command is one of the most useful commands for some folks, but just prints a bunch of gibberish unless you understand what you're seeing. It returns the events written to the various logs in the running Android system, providing invaluable information for app developers and system debuggers. Most of us will only run this one when asked by one of those developers, but it's very important that we know how to use it correctly.
To see the log output on your computer screen, just type "adb logcat" and hit enter. Things can scroll by pretty fast, and chances are you won't find what you're looking for. There are two ways to handle this one -- filters, or text output.
You also have to specify the cmds properly.
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