Android Hacking

Intro

Android devices are fast becoming one of the most popular devices around. They range from smartphones, to tablets, TV-on-a-stick to laptops.

Getting the most out of one of these however might involve a nice bit of hackery!!

Terms of reference

Flash? brick? ROM? Kang? WTF?! Explanation of terms:

• ROM - Read-Only-Memory, the install code (firmware) usually in compressed .zip or .img form this is what you replace your original firmware with
• Root - Basically gain administrative privileges but also the 'physical' root of the file-system directory tree (in *nix)
• Flash - The process of installing firmware, 'flashing'
• Apps and Play Store - Google Play Store is the most popular place to get apps from, but not the only place to do so.
• Bootloader - The small bit of code that tells device what system to boot, often locked to original system
• Firmware - The operating system installed with specific hardware drivers for the relevant device in question
• Recovery - A hidden system partition containing tools to recover,restore,backup the system
• CWM - ClockworkMod Recovery, the CyanogenMod backup and restore tool, an alternative recovery system
• Nandroid (backup) - The poorly names method of making a backup of your complete device system done from CWM
• brick/un-brick - one of the risks is 'bricking' your device, literally making it no more use than a brick!
• CyanogenMod - A popular (most popular) third party Android alternatives
• AOSP - Android Open Source Program
• AOKP - Android Open Kang Program
• ADB - Android Debug Bridge, part of the Android SDK, useful for interfacing with your Android device from a computer
• .apk - Android package files, this is the format of your apps, similar to .deb/.rpm/.dmg a compressed archive of files that make up a typical Android application to be installed
• XDA-developers - The most popular phone (and more) discussion forum
• Kang/er - cheat/thief, someone who takes someone else’s work and presents it as their own work.
• Radio/RUUs - the specific radio firmware required for your specific device and global location, updated usually via the bootloader, high brickage risk!

Rooting your device

Why root?

To enable full control and install all those useful apps that require it

Installing ROMs like AOSP, CyanogenMod

Requires rooting (normally) Unlocking bootloader (normally) Installing CWM (or 4Ext/other) Recovery Reboot to recovery Flash downloaded image/s

G-Apps

Due to Google licensing, it is not legal to (re)distribute google applications in third party ROMs, so a separate .zip is usually supplied to be flashed after install of your chosen ROM, if you wish to do so. It is highly likely that not installing G-apps will result in limited functionality of your device, depending on what it is and your requirements.

http://wiki.rootzwiki.com/Google_Apps

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

De-google'ing your Android

You might think that Google is the new micor$oft and want nothing to do with them, but really can't abide by windows phone or iPhone, so can you be truly Google free on an Android device? Probably not...yet

Recovery

Really the place to start before flashing any ROMs, MAKE A FULL BACKUP AS SOON AS YOU CAN!!

A typical recovery such as Clockwork Mod Recovery (CWM) not only makes backups of your complete device, but also restores from backups, installs ROMs and a load of other useful things, such as check partitions/file-systems, check permissions, re-calibrate your battery and more.

http://www.clockworkmod.com/rommanager

ADB the Android debug bridge

ADB is part of the Android SDK (software development kit) and while it is not strictly necessary to flash/root devices, it is very handy for accessing your device from another computer via the command line, rebooting to bootloader/recovery and viewing logs or making backups

http://developer.android.com/tools/help/adb.html

Share which useful apps people are using

A list of some can't live without apps and ROMs that people can contribute here:

• Android Terminal Emulator
• ConnectBot