[ HOW TO ] ADB AND WHY I LOVE ADB commands <3

[Flomaster]

I haven't seen a simple ADB COMMANDS tutorial here so here it goes


Motorola Drivers: if you don't have it installed already get it here:
USB and PC Charging Drivers - Motorola USA


First you need the Google's Android SDK download it here:
Android SDK | Android Developers
put the contents of the zipped file in C:/android/
it should look like this:

Now, set your PATH environment variable by right click on My Computer, and select Properties. Under the Advanced tab, hit the Environment Variables button, and in the dialog that comes up, double-click on Path under System Variables. at the end of the line add a semicolon then the full path to the tools directory to the path, in this case, it is: C:\android\tools
Then click OK , OK , OK.

I am running Win7 so XP and vista might look a bit different:






Make sure you have USBDebugging checked on your phone:
Menu>settings>Application Settings>Development>USB DEBUGGING


The long drawn out way to Mount your system
To Mount as Read-Write:
JUST FOUND OUT ABOUT THIS AND IT DOESN'T REQUIRE A SCRIPT

adb remount

OR THE LONG WAY

 mount -o remount,rw -t yaffs2 /dev/block/mtdblock4 /system

To Mount as Read-Only
THE LONG WAY

mount -o ro,remount -t yaffs2 /dev/block/mtdblock4   /system

IT GOT OLD QUICK

I found out about scripts and found a couple to make my life easier (down load the attached zip and push to the same directory you have busybox installed /system/xbin OR /system/bin/)
**use the mount command above in order to do this.**

sysrw = mounts the system as read-write
and
sysro= mounts the system as read-only

then came root explorer great it mounts for you and makes copying files easy,
but then I ended up connecting to the computer,
clicking mount USB
copy files to sdcard ,
unmount USB,
copy file from the sdcard to the Droid.
blah time consuming and since my usb was already connected why not use the ADB....

well with the ability to ADB PULL / ADB PUSH I can quickly and easily move files from the droid to the pc or sdcard with ease.

Commands:

change to android tools directory: its a good idea to keep it simply mine is located in c:/androind/tools

cd c:android/tools/

now you can run your ADB commands

Mount the system as Read-Write:
this will mount your system as Read-Write using the script you placed in your /system/xbin/ directory. you can then push and pull files from your DROID

adb shell
su
sysrw

adb pull: to be done from the directory your tools are in
example c:/android/tools/>adb pull

adb pull /system/framework-res.apk framework-res.apk

this pulled the framework-res.apk from /system/framework/ to your adk tools directory you can make changes to it and push it back


adb push:to be done from the directory your tools are in
example c:/android/tools/>adb push
**these are case sensitive so Launcher2.apk does not equal launcher2.apk
Gmail.apk does not = gmail.apk Phone.apk does not = phone.apk**
get my drift?
Disclaimer: when pushing framework-res.apk while not in recovery mode it MIGHT cause boot loops. it doesn't for me, but had for others so if you push framework-res.apk and get boot loops, boot into recovery and push it again.

adb push framework-res.apk   /system/framework/framework-res.apk

this pushed back the framework-res.apk

Mount the system as Read-Only:
this will mount your system as Read only and sync using the scripts you placed in /system/bin/ directory

adb shell
su
sysro

Rebooting:
Rebooting is easy

to be done from adb shell

adb shell
su
reboot

OR

adb shell
su
reboot recovery

OR
to be done in tools directory
c:/android/tools/>

adb reboot
adb reboot recovery

Screen Capture: to be done from Tools directory
example

c:/android/tools/>ddms.bat

to quickly open the screen capture tool type ddms.bat
click on the image of a phone on the left and click the Device menu then screen cap or press Ctrl+S

EXAMPLES OF USING ADB TO:

Boot Animations: download your boot animation and place in tools folder it can be called what ever you want because the file will be be changed when we push it.

adb shell
su
sysrw
exit
exit
adb push thekickassbootanimation-goes-here.zip /data/local/bootanimation.zip
adb shell
su
sysro
reboot

you mounted as read-write exited out of abd shell into your tools folder and pushed your oddly named boot animation to /data/local/ and renamed to bootanimation.zip


Pull a file and push it back:
I will pull my launcher2.apk change the app drawer handle and push it back with my new app drawer images

adb shell
su
sysrw
exit
exit
adb pull /system/app/Launcher2.apk Launcher2.apk

we pulled launcher2.apk from /system/app/ and name it Launcher2.apk and put it in the tools folder on the computer. make your changes to the apk so you can push it back

adb push Launcher2.apk /system/app/Launcher2.apk
adb shell
su
sysro
reboot

I pushed the new launcher2.apk back to /system/app/ mounted the system as read only and sync'd and rebooted.

Changing Directory from ADB SHELL:
not you need to have a forward slash in front of the directory

adb shell
su
cd /sdcard 
cd /system/app/
cd /data/app/

Now maybe you want to see what files are residing in that directory to do that we we the ls command:

adb shell
su
cd /system/xbin/
ls
This will return a list of all the files in  the "xbin" directory

Removing stock Apps: email, corp cal,amazon.mp3
these reside inside or /system/app/

su
sysrw
cd /system/app/
ls
this now shows you what apps are inside of there note you need to type the name exactly as displayed as it is case sensitive 
rm com.Email.apk
rm com.CorpCal.apk
sync
reboot

Removing left over data from the APKS:
menu>settings>applications>manage applications
these will usually start with "com" just type the file name as it is on the droid I did with with my droid on so I could see the file names.

su
sysrw
pm uninstall com.motorola.calendar
pm uninstall com.android.email
pm uninstall com.android.mms
*must be done after removing the APK, you will get "Sucess" message after it removed it*

I can update the OP if I missed some stuff, but im at work and want to get home to my family and enjoy some pints of beer


-=Jason=-

[adrynalyne]

Nice write up. Very nice.

[thebowers]

May want to add for pushing framework-res.apk that you would want to do this through recovery. As it tends to cause a boot loop if done with the system running.

[loop4zil]

Thank you for this

[Flomaster]

May want to add for pushing framework-res.apk that you would want to do this through recovery. As it tends to cause a boot loop if done with the system running.

I will put a disclaimer in there:

odd I haven't had any bootloops at all when I was changing my "pull down Text" I pulled my framework-res.apk changed the eri.xml file pushed it back sycned and rebooted. when metamorph themes the framework-res.apk it isn't in recovery.


-=Jason=-

[adrynalyne]

Something to add:

adb reboot
adb reboot recovery

You dont specifically have to be in the shell to do these. I have no idea why I mentioned that. I guess its the commands I use the most.

[thebowers]

May want to add for pushing framework-res.apk that you would want to do this through recovery. As it tends to cause a boot loop if done with the system running.

I will put a disclaimer in there:

odd I haven't had any bootloops at all when I was changing my "pull down Text" I pulled my framework-res.apk changed the eri.xml file pushed it back sycned and rebooted. when metamorph themes the framework-res.apk it isn't in recovery.


-=Jason=-

With MM you aren't pushing and replacing the whole framework file. It may not be an issue with ADB, but if you try it in terminal it will do an instant reboot and never load. Kind of like what some people are seeing when pushing MM themes on ESE53 builds.

[Flomaster]

May want to add for pushing framework-res.apk that you would want to do this through recovery. As it tends to cause a boot loop if done with the system running.

I will put a disclaimer in there:

odd I haven't had any bootloops at all when I was changing my "pull down Text" I pulled my framework-res.apk changed the eri.xml file pushed it back sycned and rebooted. when metamorph themes the framework-res.apk it isn't in recovery.


-=Jason=-

With MM you aren't pushing and replacing the whole framework file. It may not be an issue with ADB, but if you try it in terminal it will do an instant reboot and never load. Kind of like what some people are seeing when pushing MM themes on ESE53 builds.

ahh I see what you mean, I edited my post with a warning about a possible boot loop.

-=Jason=-

[Topsy]

I've never had framework-res.apk pushing cause a bootloop, but it will force a reboot if you push it onto a running phone for sure.

[SoDroid]

Please don't burn me for this
I have done many things to my phone but I have found ways of doing them that do not involve ADB Shell. I prefer to not deal with lines of code. But I have found that for somethings, I need ADB. (Here comes the burn part) Where can I download ADB Shell? I searched the forums and everyone just talks about how to use it, not where they got it.

I assume its apart of the SDK but I do not know.

-I don't think I've ever felt so nooblike.