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Android Debug Bridge
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Root Your Droid on Jan.08, 2010, under
Background Information,
Guides
The Droid is a highly hackable device, and much of this is due to the rich developer support directly from Google. As many of you know, the Droid runs the Android operating system which has been developed and pushed by Google. Not only do they provide the end-user OS you use on the phone, but they have created a full-featured SDK for private developers.
An SDK, or Software Developer’s Kit, is a collection of scripts, code, programs, and knowledge bases that assist people in creating Android apps and working inside the OS. It is a completely free package and is absolutely essential for higher level mods. You can read more about the SDK and download it from here:
Android SDK | Android Developers
There is also an in-depth installation guide. It does not matter where on your computer the SDK folder is located and installed to. Follow the install guide before proceeding.
Inside of the SDK is the cornerstone of most Android mods: Android Debug Bridge. It is located within the tools folder (android-sdk-windows/tools) and can be accessed through Windows Command Prompt. This small application is a bridge between your computer and the Android OS on your phone. It allows you to push, pull, copy, and delete files as well as advanced scripts that perform specific tasks directly on your phone. You can think of it as an interface which extends your computer’s keyboard and files to your Droid.
In most of the upcoming Root Your Droid guides, you will see me reference the use of ADB, command prompt, Superuser permissions, and Linux code. This will all center around the SDK and Android Debug Bridge. But before you can use it, it’s important to learn what it is you’re doing.
How to access ADB through your Windows computer:
The first thing to know is how you access ADB to be able to use it. If you notice, double clicking on adb.exe in the tools folder does not open or run anything. In order to run ADB, we must do it through the Command Prompt.
To do this, go to your Start Menu and select “Run…”.
A Run dialogue will pop up; type “cmd” and hit OK.
This will open a new window called Windows Command Prompt.
This program is similar to DOS in that it allows you to input text-based commands in order to perform tasks. From here, we need to navigate to the tools folder inside of the Android SDK folder (where adb.exe is located). To do this, we need to know the exact file path of the tools folder. Open up the tools folder and at the top of the Windows Explorer window is the address, or file path, of the folder.
For instance, my tools folder is on the Desktop of my XP machine. Thus, the full file path of the folder is:
C:\Documents and Settings\user\Desktop\android-sdk-windows\tools
Where “user” is the username of your computer. Copy your file path for use in the Command Prompt.
Back to the Command Prompt, we now need to point to the file path we copied. To do this, we need to type: “cd” for change directory, then add a space. This will preceed the file path of the folder. Right click inside Command Prompt and select Paste. You cannot use a keyboard shortcut to paste into Command Prompt, this will simply type out the keystrokes you used. Once we have typed in “cd ” and then pasted the file path, your Command Prompt should look like this:
Press enter and you will notice that where “c:\” use to be is now replaced with the full file path of the tools folder.
If Command Prompt alerts you that “The system cannot find the path specified”, you probably have not pasted the correct or full path of the folder.
Tip: Windows Vista and 7 users may go into their tools folder, highlight the full address and simply replace it with “cmd”. Press enter and Command Prompt will open and will be pointed at the folder.
Once you have pointed Command Prompt to your tools folder, you may test to see if you have everything in order by typing “adb” and hitting enter.
If all went well, Command Prompt should display a long list off available commands and descriptions. Here is an explanation for the most commonly used ADB commands:
- adb push – Copies a file from the computer onto the Droid.
- adb pull – Copies a file from the Droid to the computer.
- adb shell – Emulates Unix terminal so that you may issue Unix Commands from the Command Prompt. (Learn more about Unix Commands for Droid modding)
- adb reboot – Reboots the Droid.
There are many more commands as you can see from the list Command Prompt gave you. These are simply the most common commands used in these guides. The guides will go more in depth as you go along. To use these commands, you must ensure your directory in Command Prompt is pointed to your tools folder.
You must be made aware that when accessing your Rooted phone through ADB, that you may be prompted to accept a Superuser Permission. To avoid seeing this in the future, simply select “Always” when this pops up. If you do not accept the permission, it will fail ADB.
images and info from:
Android Debug Bridge | Root Your Droid
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