Kobo Vox Hacking Progress - Page 13

mightyzazz · 01-08-2014, 07:37 AM

Please bare with me - I am old. Have now got a terminal!

Difflugia · 01-08-2014, 09:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mightyzazz

Please bare with me - I am old. Have now got a terminal!

I don't think you're the only one. This adventure sort of slipped my mind during the holidays. I'll work up some instructions this evening.

Difflugia · 01-19-2014, 11:59 PM

I put together what I hope is a comprehensive guide to rooting your Vox and increasing the internal storage capacity while you're at it. I tried to be careful, but typing this stuff in wrong could brick your Vox or your computer (or at least force you to reinstall Windows). If you see any error messages, stop and ask. If you are going to follow these directions, I recommend reading them through enough to be familiar with them. If you really want to be prepared, find a few old USB flash drives and practice things like making partitions and copying one drive to another. If I've made a mistake in my directions, it might not be obvious unless you're familiar with how Linux handles hard drive devices and partitions. I'll feel really, really sorry for you if something breaks, but that's it, so be careful and on your own head be it.

GETTING STARTED

The first thing we want to do is make a directory to work in. We're going to create some temporary files and such, and it's easiest if we keep them all in one spot. Then, if we mess up, we can delete the directory and start over. First, we're going to create a rooted, but otherwise exact duplicate of the stock Vox memory card. After that, we'll modify it to take advantage of a larger card.

We're going to need the following hardware:

The original Micro SD Card from the inside of the Vox
A new 8GB or larger Micro SD Card for the rooted image
A USB Micro SD Card reader
If you're booting from a live CD, a 16GB or larger USB flash drive for your working directory
A notepad and pen or pencil

We'll need the original memory card removed from the Vox, another card that's 8GB or larger (preferably SanDisk class 4; others may run slowly) and a USB memory card reader. If you use a larger card, then we can take advantage of the extra space later. You'll need to have access to a directory with at least 10GB free. You've said that you're using VirtualBox, but I've also included instructions for using a 16GB (or larger) USB flash drive for your working directory. You're also going to need the root password for your system.

Please note that this process may take several hours, most of it downloading firmware (depending on the speed of your internet connection) and copying images to and from the memory cards (depending on the speed of your USB hardware and the cards).

PREPARE YOUR WORKING DIRECTORY

If you're using Linux installed in a virtual machine or on your hard drive (remember that you need about 10GB free), then type the following:

Code:

mkdir vox
cd vox

Now skip to the section named PREPARING THE FILES.

If you're booting from a live CD and don't have a hard drive partition to use as a working directory, use the following directions. The benefit to this method is that you could actually disconnect your computer's hard drive to do this so that you know for sure that it won't get erased.

The first thing we need to do is get the flash drive mounted. Most systems automount USB drives if you plug them in. Mine doesn't, so I'm kind of guessing about exactly what will happen. If something doesn't look right, let me know and I'll try to figure out what's going on.

First, we need to write down a few bits of information. In your terminal, type the following:

Code:

id

When I type it, I see this:

Code:

> id
uid=100(bowz) gid=100(users) groups=100(users),11(floppy),17(audio),18(video),19(cdrom),93(scanner)

The information that we're interested in are the numbers following "uid" and "gid". Mine are both 100, but yours won't necessarily be the same. Write them down in order of uid:gid ("100:100"). As an aside, if either of those numbers is 0, or if you see 0 anywhere in the "groups" list, then you're performing commands as root all the time. That's a bad idea. The rest of these commands would work, but I recommend that you stop and let me know so we can try to fix it.

Now we're going to prepare the flash drive. In your terminal, type the following:

Code:

tail -f /var/log/messages

That will start displaying system messages in real time, which will help us figure out what device your system assigns to the USB drive. The output on mine when I do that looks like this:

Code:

> tail -f /var/log/messages
Jan 19 17:32:44 dungheap blueman-mechanism: loading RfKill  
Jan 19 17:33:04 dungheap logger: ACPI group video / action LCD is not defined
Jan 19 17:33:05 dungheap last message repeated 5 times
Jan 19 17:33:13 dungheap blueman-mechanism: Exiting  
Jan 19 17:51:07 dungheap -- MARK --
Jan 19 18:11:07 dungheap -- MARK --
Jan 19 18:31:07 dungheap -- MARK --
Jan 19 18:34:13 dungheap kernel: [ 3807.920339] EXT4-fs (loop0): mounted filesystem with ordered data mode. Opts: (null)
Jan 19 18:45:20 dungheap logger: ACPI action lid is not defined
Jan 19 19:02:49 dungheap logger: ACPI action lid is not defined

Yours should look similar, but the messages themselves don't really matter at this point. You can see from the above that my system is named "dungheap" and I closed the lid (it's a laptop) to put my daughter to bed.

Now insert the USB flash drive. You should see output similar to the following.

Code:

Jan 19 19:44:40 dungheap kernel: [ 8035.217593] usb 1-3: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 5
Jan 19 19:44:40 dungheap kernel: [ 8035.333488] usb 1-3: New USB device found, idVendor=1908, idProduct=0225
Jan 19 19:44:40 dungheap kernel: [ 8035.333502] usb 1-3: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
Jan 19 19:44:40 dungheap kernel: [ 8035.333512] usb 1-3: Product: USB2.0 Device
Jan 19 19:44:40 dungheap kernel: [ 8035.333520] usb 1-3: Manufacturer: Generic
Jan 19 19:44:40 dungheap kernel: [ 8035.333527] usb 1-3: SerialNumber: 20120218120009
Jan 19 19:44:40 dungheap kernel: [ 8035.337091] scsi8 : usb-storage 1-3:1.0
Jan 19 19:44:41 dungheap kernel: [ 8036.338805] scsi 8:0:0:0: Direct-Access     Generic  Mass-Storage     1.09 PQ: 0 ANSI: 2
Jan 19 19:44:41 dungheap kernel: [ 8036.339606] sd 8:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg2 type 0
Jan 19 19:44:42 dungheap kernel: [ 8037.078141] sd 8:0:0:0: [sdb] 30679040 512-byte logical blocks: (15.7 GB/14.6 GiB)
Jan 19 19:44:42 dungheap kernel: [ 8037.080354] sd 8:0:0:0: [sdb] Write Protect is off
Jan 19 19:44:42 dungheap kernel: [ 8037.088234]  sdb: sdb1
Jan 19 19:44:42 dungheap kernel: [ 8037.091100] sd 8:0:0:0: [sdb] Attached SCSI removable disk

The line second from the bottom tells me that the system assigned sdb to the flash drive and it has one partition (sdb1). Write the drive designation down on your notepad. If there's only one partition (in this case, sdb1) go ahead and write that down. If there are no partitions, (you only see sdb), then write that down instead. Since a brand-new flash drive usually has a VFAT partition on it, we're going to reformat it as an EXT2 filesystem. This is necessary because some of the operations we'll need to do in our working directory won't work with VFAT. Since your system probably automounted the flash drive, we'll need to unmount it. Press CTRL-c to stop the log output and enter the following:

Code:

mount

That will show you a list of mounted filesystems. Mine looks like this:

Code:

> mount
/dev/root on / type ext3 (rw,relatime,errors=continue,barrier=0,data=ordered)
proc on /proc type proc (rw)
sysfs on /sys type sysfs (rw)
tmpfs on /dev/shm type tmpfs (rw)
/dev/sdb1 on /mnt/usb type vfat (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev,user=bowz)

We're looking for the same drive that we wrote down, sdb1 (or whatever yours was). If there were multiple partitions (like sdb1 and sdb2), you should see one of them, so write that down.

Code:

su

It will ask for your root password. After typing it in, the command prompt should change to "#". Everything you do until you type "exit" will be done with no questions asked, even if it trashes your system. Be careful. Now unmount the drive. For the following commands, replace sdb1 with the name that you saw in the log output.

Code:

umount /dev/sdb1

FORMATTING THE DRIVE

The easiest thing to do here is just reformat the partition we just unmounted. This will erase everything on the partition and Windows will no longer be able to read it. Still as root ("#" command prompt), type the following. Remember that this is formatting whatever drive you're telling it to. This is the most dangerous part of the journey, so again, be careful. If you aren't 100% sure, stop and ask.

Code:

mkfs.ext2 /dev/sdb1

This may take a few minutes, but you should see something similar to the following when it's done:

Code:

Filesystem label=
OS type: Linux
Block size=1024 (log=0)
Fragment size=1024 (log=0)
Stride=0 blocks, Stripe width=0 blocks
65536 inodes, 262144 blocks
13107 blocks (5.00%) reserved for the super user
First data block=1
Maximum filesystem blocks=67371008
32 block groups
8192 blocks per group, 8192 fragments per group
2048 inodes per group
Superblock backups stored on blocks: 
	   8193, 24577, 40961, 57345, 73729, 204801, 221185

Writing inode tables: done                            
Writing superblocks and filesystem accounting information: done

This filesystem will be automatically checked every 30 mounts or
180 days, whichever comes first.  Use tune2fs -c or -i to override.

We're finally ready to mount the flash drive as our working directory. You should still have the "#" prompt. Enter the following, again replacing sdb1 with the drive designation that you wrote down.

Code:

mkdir /mnt/vox
mount -t ext2 /dev/sdb1 /mnt/vox
cd /mnt/vox

Now we're going to make the working directory. Replace the 100:100 with the uid:gid numbers that you wrote down earlier.

Code:

mkdir vox
chown 100:100 vox
exit

After typing "exit", you're no longer root and the "#" prompt should go away. You're also in whatever directory you started in before all of those commands, so let's go to your new working directory.

Code:

cd /mnt/vox/vox

There. Now we can go to the next stage.

PREPARING THE FILES

Now let's download the software that we'll need. The command that we're going to add to the Vox is "su" (the same "switch user" or "superuser" application that we used before on our Linux system) and the accompanying SuperUser.apk. Both are available at the following website: http://androidsu.com/superuser/. Download the latest stable version for ARM devices, which is currently Superuser-3.1.3-arm-signed.zip.

Once the zip file is downloaded, we're going to unzip the contents so we can copy them to the Vox later.

Code:

mkdir superuser
cd superuser
unzip ../Superuser-3.1.3-arm-signed.zip

You should see the following output:

Code:

Archive:  ../Superuser-3.1.3-arm-signed.zip
signed by SignApk
  inflating: META-INF/MANIFEST.MF    
  inflating: META-INF/CERT.SF        
  inflating: META-INF/CERT.RSA       
  inflating: META-INF/com/google/android/update-binary  
  inflating: META-INF/com/google/android/updater-script  
  inflating: system/app/Superuser.apk  
  inflating: system/bin/su

Now type the following to move back to our vox directory.

Code:

cd ..

Now we're going to download the current Vox firmware (thanks, hecatae).

Code:

mkdir fwparts
cd fwparts
curl -O "http://download.kobobooks.com/vox/images/eng.CAN.20120604.161216/x[000-166]"

The download will take a while, totalling 166MB. When it's done, we'll concatenate it into a single file.

Code:

cat x* > ../update.zip
cd ..
ls -al

You should see output that looks similar to this:

Code:

total 169040
drwxr-xr-x   4 bowz users      4096 Jan 19 18:21 .
drwxr-xr-x 193 bowz users     16384 Jan 19 18:18 ..
-rw-------   1 bowz users   1324669 Jan 19 17:56 Superuser-3.1.3-arm-signed.zip
drwxr-xr-x   2 bowz users      4096 Jan 19 18:16 fwparts
drwxr-xr-x   4 bowz users      4096 Jan 19 17:56 superuser
-rw-r--r--   1 bowz users 171558652 Jan 19 18:21 update.zip

Now we're going to root update.zip, which will become our recovery image. Since the chance of Kobo updating the firmware is becoming vanishingly small, this means a factory reset will bring us back to a rooted copy of the latest firmware.

Code:

mkdir update
cd update
unzip ../update.zip
cd ..
mkdir imagemount
su

After typing "su", you should see a "Password:" prompt. We're telling the system that we want to become root and it wants the root password, so type that in. The command prompt will change to "#". Everything you do between now and when you type "exit" will be done with no questions asked, even if it trashes your computer. Be careful. Now we'll mount the system image in the update and add the superuser files.

Code:

mount -t ext4 update/system.img imagemount -o loop
cp superuser/system/app/Superuser.apk imagemount/app/
cp superuser/system/bin/su imagemount/bin/
chmod 4755 imagemount/bin/su
umount imagemount
exit

After typing "exit", the command prompt should no longer by "#". Now we'll zip it back up into the recovery package.

Code:

cd update
zip -r9 ../update-rooted.zip .
cd ..

BACKING UP THE VOX

Now we're prepared to create the rooted SD Card. First, we need to make a copy of the memory card from the Vox. We'll then have two backups, the original SD Card and the copy in our working directory. We're going to watch our log again.

Code:

tail -f /var/log/messages

Now put the SD Card from the Vox into your USB card reader and then insert the card reader into the computer. You should see output very similar to the following:

Code:

Jan 19 21:08:31 dungheap kernel: [13065.942580] usb 1-3: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 7
Jan 19 21:08:31 dungheap kernel: [13066.060329] usb 1-3: New USB device found, idVendor=1908, idProduct=0225
Jan 19 21:08:31 dungheap kernel: [13066.060344] usb 1-3: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
Jan 19 21:08:31 dungheap kernel: [13066.060354] usb 1-3: Product: USB2.0 Device
Jan 19 21:08:31 dungheap kernel: [13066.060361] usb 1-3: Manufacturer: Generic
Jan 19 21:08:31 dungheap kernel: [13066.060368] usb 1-3: SerialNumber: 20120218120009
Jan 19 21:08:31 dungheap kernel: [13066.063328] scsi10 : usb-storage 1-3:1.0
Jan 19 21:08:32 dungheap kernel: [13067.065646] scsi 10:0:0:0: Direct-Access     Generic  Mass-Storage     1.09 PQ: 0 ANSI: 2
Jan 19 21:08:32 dungheap kernel: [13067.066389] sd 10:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg3 type 0
Jan 19 21:08:33 dungheap kernel: [13067.760280] sd 10:0:0:0: [sdc] 15523840 512-byte logical blocks: (7.94 GB/7.40 GiB)
Jan 19 21:08:33 dungheap kernel: [13067.761191] sd 10:0:0:0: [sdc] Write Protect is off
Jan 19 21:08:33 dungheap kernel: [13067.773552]  sdc: sdc1 sdc2 sdc3 < sdc5 sdc6 > sdc4
Jan 19 21:08:33 dungheap kernel: [13067.779330] sd 10:0:0:0: [sdc] Attached SCSI removable disk

The second line from the bottom tells us the system assigned device sdc to the SD Card. Your partition list ("sdc1 sdc2 sdc3 < sdc5 sdc6 > sdc4") might have different letters, but the numbers should be the same because that's how the Vox card is partitioned. Write down the letters (in my case above, sdc). None of the partitions is VFAT, so automounting software shouldn't mount any of them. Hit CTRL-c again to stop the logger and check the mount table again (by typing "mount"), just to be safe. You shouldn't see any of the partitions listed in the output to the "mount" command. If you do, become root and unmount any that show up. For example, if you see /dev/sdc1 in your mount table, do the following:

Code:

su
umount /dev/sdc1
exit

Let's make our backup copy of the card. Using the letters that you wrote down instead of sdc, enter the following:

Code:

su
dd if=/dev/sdc of=./vox_image.bin bs=512
exit

This will take quite a long time, like up to an hour on slow hardware (and any part in the chain of card, reader, USB hardware, CPU can be the bottleneck), so don't panic. When it's done and you've typed "exit", take the USB reader out. Remove the Vox SD Card from the reader and replace it with the new one that will be your rooted copy. Put the Vox original someplace safe.

COPYING THE IMAGE TO THE NEW CARD

Your system will probably assign the same drive designation to this one as the last one, but we'll verify it just to be safe.

Code:

tail -f /var/log/messages

Now put the card reader in the PC. Since this is a new card, it'll probably only have a single partition again and it will probably get automounted. Write down the drive designation and hit CTRL-c. Check the "mount" command to see if it got mounted. If it did, unmount it:

Code:

su
umount /dev/sdc1
exit

Now we're going to copy the image that we made to the new card. Again, be careful to use the drive designation that you saw in the log output.

Code:

su
dd if=./vox_image.bin of=/dev/sdc bs=512
exit

This will take even longer than the read. Be patient and don't panic. When it's done, pull the reader out of the PC, wait a few seconds, and put it back in. The partition table gets cached and that will refresh it. It also wouldn't hurt to watch /var/log/messages again, either, just to make sure everything's OK.

ROOTING YOUR NEW CARD

If you were to put the new card inside your Vox and put it back together, you would be an exact copy of the old one, complete with all of your apps, user information, books and data. If you keep your backups, you can now go back to that state anytime you want as long as your hardware holds out. We're going to root it, however.

Remember, instead of sdc in the following commands, use the drive designation that you wrote down. The numbers will be the same as I have below (so if the drive that you wrote down was "hde" instead of "sdc", you'll use "/dev/hde2" in the first set of commands below).

First, we're going to copy the recovery image to the new card.

Code:

su
mount -t ext4 /dev/sdc2 imagemount
ls -al imagemount

You should see a file named "recovery_backup_signed.zip". If not, something's wrong. If you do see it, then still as root:

Code:

rm imagemount/recovery_backup_signed.zip
cp update-rooted.zip imagemount/recovery_backup_signed.zip
sync
umount imagemount
exit

At this point, you could put the card back into the Vox and perform a factory reset. It would broom out all of your data, but the result would be rooted. Instead, I'm going to assume that you want to keep your data. If you want to expand the storage of your Vox, you won't get to keep your data, anyway, so you can skip this next bit and go to EXPANDING YOUR STORAGE.

Code:

su
mount -t ext4 /dev/sdc1 imagemount
cp superuser/system/app/Superuser.apk imagemount/app/
cp superuser/system/bin/su imagemount/bin/
chmod 4755 imagemount/bin/su
umount imagemount
exit

If you don't want to expand the storage (you used an 8GB card or don't care about wasting the extra space) then you're done. You can skip to the YOU'RE DONE section.

EXPANDING YOUR STORAGE

If you used a 16GB or 32GB card, this will let you use the extra space for storage. It will, however, wipe out your user data and restore the Vox to rooted, but otherwise factory state.

Code:

su
fdisk /dev/sdc

You should see the following prompt:

Code:

Command (m for help):

Type "p" and hit enter. You should see something very similar to the following. In fact, the numbers should all match exactly.

Code:

bash-4.1# fdisk /dev/sdc

Command (m for help): p

Disk /dev/sdc: 7948 MB, 7948206080 bytes
4 heads, 16 sectors/track, 242560 cylinders, total 15523840 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xcf3814cc

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdc1           92160      616448      262144+  83  Linux
/dev/sdc2          616449     1665025      524288+  83  Linux
/dev/sdc3         1665026     4286466     1310720+   5  Extended
/dev/sdc4         4286467    15523839     5618686+  83  Linux
/dev/sdc5         1665088     3762240     1048576+  83  Linux
/dev/sdc6         3762303     4286466      262082   83  Linux

Command (m for help):

We're going to remove and recreate several partitions. First, let's delete partitions 3-6. Enter the command "d". It will ask you which partition you want to delete. Enter "6" and hit enter. Then type "d" again and this time, enter "5". Then do the same for partitions 4 and 3.

Now, we're going to create our new, larger partitions. We need to create partiton 3 as an "extended" partition that will hold partitions 5 and 6. Partition 5 is the data partition, where apps are installed and partition 6 is the Dalvik cache. On mine, I gave them 4GB split into 3.5GB for apps and 512MB for cache. This more than triples the space for apps and doubles the cache.

Enter "n" to create a new partition. Enter "e" to create an extended partition. Then enter partition number 3. Hit enter to select the default first sector and type "+4G" (for four gigabytes) for the last sector.

Enter "n" to create another new partition. Enter "p" to create a primary partition and select partition number 4. Hit enter twice to select default start and end blocks. This will allocate the remainder of the card for /sdata, which is where things like books are stored.

Enter "n" to create another new partition. Enter "l" to create a logical partition. Hit enter to select the default first sector and type "+3500M" for (roughly) 3.5GB.

Enter "n" to create another new partition. Enter "l" to create a logical partition. Hit enter twice to select the default first and last sectors.

Now enter "w" to write out the partition table.

To format the partitions, enter the following commands, again using the correct drive designation. Each one may take a few minutes.

Code:

mkfs.ext4 /dev/sdc5
mkfs.ext4 /dev/sdc6
exit

The Vox will format partition 4 (/sdcard) itself when it boots. You're now ready to put the card back into the Vox.

YOU'RE DONE!

You can now take out your card reader.

If you were using a USB flash drive for your working directory, you can now unmount it.

Code:

cd
su
umount /mnt/vox
exit

Take the USB drive out and put it somewhere safe as a backup in case you need to create a new internal card for your Vox.

Put the new card in the internal card slot of your Vox. I recommend connecting the battery and booting it up before you put all of the screws back in just to be safe, but even a worst case scenario now has you putting the original card back in and running a Vox without root. If you didn't increase the card partition sizes, it should boot right up, but otherwise it'll take an extra long time (again, don't panic) as it formats /sdcard and rebuilds the data and cache partitions. If you changed the partition sizes, it might be a good idea to do a factory restore.

To do a factory restore, which rebuilds the system from the recovery image, then you need to abort five boots in a row. To do this, power the Vox on. When the open book animation starts, hold down the power button until the Vox shuts off. Repeat. After the fifth time, you'll get a "something went wrong" message and it'll rebuild the Vox system. It doesn't repartition the card, though, so if you expanded the partition sizes, they'll stay that way. Note that the "factory restore" in the settings menu just erases /data and /sdcard, but doesn't rebuild /system.

Good luck. I've tried to be complete and careful, but remember that there is a danger of hosing up your Vox and computer, so if you aren't sure about something, stop and ask.

Finally, if your card ever dies and you didn't keep any backups, you can actually create an SD Card for a Vox from scratch using just the update.zip downloaded from Kobo (which I posted about here). The only problem I had was that I couldn't use the Google Play Store afterwards. I think there's a serial number or something stored on the card somewhere that I couldn't find.

mightyzazz · 01-21-2014, 01:32 PM

Difflugia - I am lost for words! It must have taken you hours to do all of this for me - A huge Thank-you. I can see I have my homework cut out for me this weekend. Will keep you posted as to my progress. Thanks Again, Roberto.

Difflugia · 01-21-2014, 03:26 PM

No problem. I look forward to hearing how it goes.

briandking · 01-24-2014, 03:17 PM

I didn't test the instructions, but on reading through them it looks like you missed an output redirection arrow:

cat x* ../update.zip

I think was intended to be:

cat x* > ../update.zip

Thanks for taking the time to make such detailed instructions!

Brian

Difflugia · 01-25-2014, 03:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by briandking

I didn't test the instructions, but on reading through them it looks like you missed an output redirection arrow:

cat x* ../update.zip

I think was intended to be:

cat x* > ../update.zip

Thanks for taking the time to make such detailed instructions!

Brian

Good catch. Thanks. I'll update the instructions.

mightyzazz · 03-13-2014, 01:38 AM

Hi Difflugia. Finally got some time to try this. Typically stumbling at the first hurdle. Running LINUX off Lubuntu 13.10, so have gone from PREPARE YOUR WORKING DIRECTORY straight to PREPARING THE FILES. Have got the following messages:-

office@office-desktop:~$ mkdir vox
mkdir: cannot create directory ‘vox’: File exists
office@office-desktop:~$ cd vox
office@office-desktop:~/vox$ mkdir superuser
mkdir: cannot create directory ‘superuser’: File exists
office@office-desktop:~/vox$ cd superuser
office@office-desktop:~/vox/superuser$ unzip ../Superuser-3.1.3-arm-signed.zip
unzip: cannot find or open ../Superuser-3.1.3-arm-signed.zip, ../Superuser-3.1.3-arm-signed.zip.zip or ../Superuser-3.1.3-arm-signed.zip.ZIP.
office@office-desktop:~/vox/superuser$ mkdir superuser
mkdir: cannot create directory ‘superuser’: File exists
office@office-desktop:~/vox/superuser$ cd superuser
office@office-desktop:~/vox/superuser/superuser$ unzip ../Superuser-3.1.3-arm-signed.zip
unzip: cannot find or open ../Superuser-3.1.3-arm-signed.zip, ../Superuser-3.1.3-arm-signed.zip.zip or ../Superuser-3.1.3-arm-signed.zip.ZIP.
office@office-desktop:~/vox/superuser/superuser$

I am obviously doing something basically wrong. I have been cutting and pasting your boxed instructions. Should I put in each line individually followed by a return? I know it sounds basic, but I am a true novice, even though I have been through a couple of Youtube tutorials. I would love to complete this challenge - please help, if you get time.

Thanks,
Roberto.

mightyzazz · 03-13-2014, 01:41 AM

One other thing. I downloaded the direct link - Superuser-3.1.3-arm-signed.zip. Do I still have to download additional things from http://androidsu.com/superuser/. ?

Roberto.

Difflugia · 03-13-2014, 09:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mightyzazz

Hi Difflugia. Finally got some time to try this. Typically stumbling at the first hurdle. Running LINUX off Lubuntu 13.10, so have gone from PREPARE YOUR WORKING DIRECTORY straight to PREPARING THE FILES. Have got the following messages:-

office@office-desktop:~$ mkdir vox
mkdir: cannot create directory ‘vox’: File exists
office@office-desktop:~$ cd vox
office@office-desktop:~/vox$ mkdir superuser
mkdir: cannot create directory ‘superuser’: File exists

The "File exists" messages just mean that you've done this part before (the directories already exist, so it's warning you that you're trying to create a new copy). They shouldn't cause you problems. If you want to start from scratch, you can erase the direcories that you created:

Code:

cd
rm -rf vox

Quote:

office@office-desktop:~/vox$ cd superuser
office@office-desktop:~/vox/superuser$ unzip ../Superuser-3.1.3-arm-signed.zip
unzip: cannot find or open ../Superuser-3.1.3-arm-signed.zip, ../Superuser-3.1.3-arm-signed.zip.zip or ../Superuser-3.1.3-arm-signed.zip.ZIP.

I'm guessing here that the file was downloaded to another directory somewhere, but the command above assumes that it was downloaded into your vox directory. If I had to bet, it's probably in your home directory. Try changing the "../Superuser-3.1.3-arm-signed.zip" to "~/Superuser-3.1.3-arm-signed.zip" (change the ".." to a tilde "~"). The ".." means look in the parent of the current working directory. The current working directory is "vox/superuser", so it'll look in "vox". The tilde means to look in your home directory.

Quote:

office@office-desktop:~/vox/superuser$ mkdir superuser
mkdir: cannot create directory ‘superuser’: File exists
office@office-desktop:~/vox/superuser$ cd superuser
office@office-desktop:~/vox/superuser/superuser$ unzip ../Superuser-3.1.3-arm-signed.zip
unzip: cannot find or open ../Superuser-3.1.3-arm-signed.zip, ../Superuser-3.1.3-arm-signed.zip.zip or ../Superuser-3.1.3-arm-signed.zip.ZIP.
office@office-desktop:~/vox/superuser/superuser$

I am obviously doing something basically wrong. I have been cutting and pasting your boxed instructions. Should I put in each line individually followed by a return? I know it sounds basic, but I am a true novice, even though I have been through a couple of Youtube tutorials. I would love to complete this challenge - please help, if you get time.

Thanks,
Roberto.

It looks like you're entering the commands correctly (each line followed by return). I know I said this in the instructions, but make sure that you can do the parts where you have to identify the device names for the memory cards. You won't be able to do a straight cut-and-paste on any line with "/dev/[anything]" unless your hardware setup is quite similar to mine.

mightyzazz · 03-15-2014, 03:14 PM

Hi Difflugia. Have tried your suggestions, but still getting the same messages. Have started from scratch, changed the double period to a tilda, deleted all the downloaded files from my downloads folder, redownloaded the zip file, even tried the x86 zip. They both seem to download correctly (they have sub folders etc). I have a new install of Lubuntu 1310, and could that be missing some function? Here is my screen:-
office@office-desktop:~$ cd
office@office-desktop:~$ rm -rf vox
office@office-desktop:~$ mkdir vox
office@office-desktop:~$ cd vox
office@office-desktop:~/vox$ mkdir superuser
office@office-desktop:~/vox$ cd superuser
office@office-desktop:~/vox/superuser$ unzip ../Superuser-3.1.3-arm-signed.zip
unzip: cannot find or open ../Superuser-3.1.3-arm-signed.zip, ../Superuser-3.1.3-arm-signed.zip.zip or ../Superuser-3.1.3-arm-signed.zip.ZIP.
office@office-desktop:~/vox/superuser$ cd
office@office-desktop:~$ rm -rf vox
office@office-desktop:~$ mkdir vox
office@office-desktop:~$ cd vox
office@office-desktop:~/vox$
office@office-desktop:~/vox$ mkdir superuser
office@office-desktop:~/vox$ cd superuser
office@office-desktop:~/vox/superuser$ unzip ../Superuser-3.1.3-arm-signed.zip
unzip: cannot find or open ../Superuser-3.1.3-arm-signed.zip, ../Superuser-3.1.3-arm-signed.zip.zip or ../Superuser-3.1.3-arm-signed.zip.ZIP.
office@office-desktop:~/vox/superuser$
office@office-desktop:~/vox/superuser$ unzip ~/Superuser-3.1.3-arm-signed.zip
unzip: cannot find or open /home/office/Superuser-3.1.3-arm-signed.zip, /home/office/Superuser-3.1.3-arm-signed.zip.zip or /home/office/Superuser-3.1.3-arm-signed.zip.ZIP.
office@office-desktop:~/vox/superuser$
office@office-desktop:~/vox/superuser$ mkdir superuser
office@office-desktop:~/vox/superuser$ cd superuser
office@office-desktop:~/vox/superuser/superuser$ unzip ../Superuser-3.1.3-arm-signed.zip
unzip: cannot find or open ../Superuser-3.1.3-arm-signed.zip, ../Superuser-3.1.3-arm-signed.zip.zip or ../Superuser-3.1.3-arm-signed.zip.ZIP.
office@office-desktop:~/vox/superuser/superuser$
office@office-desktop:~/vox/superuser/superuser$ unzip ../Superuser-3.1.3-arm-signed.zip
unzip: cannot find or open ../Superuser-3.1.3-arm-signed.zip, ../Superuser-3.1.3-arm-signed.zip.zip or ../Superuser-3.1.3-arm-signed.zip.ZIP.
office@office-desktop:~/vox/superuser/superuser$ unzip ~/Superuser-3.1.3-arm-signed.zip
unzip: cannot find or open /home/office/Superuser-3.1.3-arm-signed.zip, /home/office/Superuser-3.1.3-arm-signed.zip.zip or /home/office/Superuser-3.1.3-arm-signed.zip.ZIP.
office@office-desktop:~/vox/superuser/superuser$ mkdir superuser
office@office-desktop:~/vox/superuser/superuser$ cd superuser
office@office-desktop:~/vox/superuser/superuser/superuser$ unzip ../Superuser-3.1.3-x86-signed.zip
unzip: cannot find or open ../Superuser-3.1.3-x86-signed.zip, ../Superuser-3.1.3-x86-signed.zip.zip or ../Superuser-3.1.3-x86-signed.zip.ZIP.
office@office-desktop:~/vox/superuser/superuser/superuser$

Will keep trying, as this is a great learning experience for me. Have I missed an important step jumping straight to preparing files, from preparing working directory? As a geneticist for the last twenty years, I welcome the challenge of trying to crack computer code over genetic code! Thanks,

Roberto.

PeterT · 03-15-2014, 05:38 PM

Are you sure you DID download the Superuser-3.1.3-arm-signed.zip file?

Why not try (from the command prompt)

Code:

cd
find . -name Superuser-3.1.3-arm-signed.zip

This will start in your current directory (which by having done the initial cd should be your HOME directory) and look for a file called Superuser-3.1.3-arm-signed.zip

If it doesn't find one, then it has NOT been downloaded

mightyzazz · 03-17-2014, 07:26 AM

Hi PeterT and thanks for your help. This is what happened, starting from scratch:-

office@office-desktop:~$ cd
office@office-desktop:~$ rm -rf vox
office@office-desktop:~$ mkdir vox
office@office-desktop:~$ cd vox
office@office-desktop:~/vox$ mkdir superuser
office@office-desktop:~/vox$ cd superuser
office@office-desktop:~/vox/superuser$ unzip ../Superuser-3.1.3-arm-signed.zip
unzip: cannot find or open ../Superuser-3.1.3-arm-signed.zip, ../Superuser-3.1.3-arm-signed.zip.zip or ../Superuser-3.1.3-arm-signed.zip.ZIP.
office@office-desktop:~/vox/superuser$
office@office-desktop:~/vox/superuser$ cd
office@office-desktop:~$ find . -name Superuser-3.1.3-arm-signed.zip
./Downloads/Superuser-3.1.3-arm-signed.zip
find: `./.config/enchant': Permission denied
find: `./.cache/dconf': Permission denied
office@office-desktop:~$

I am following the instructions and downloading from the link on the Firefox web browser which tells me I have successfully downloaded a 1.3MB zip file which is in /home/office/Downloads. Should I be doing all of this within the terminal instead, or is that a dumb question? The download seemed quick on Firefox, but the file properties does say 1.3 MiB size. I do get the feeling that I am missing something obvious. To save annoying you great helpers, maybe you can point me in the direction of what basic commands I need to be competent in, before going on further. Thanks again,

Roberto.

PeterT · 03-17-2014, 09:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mightyzazz

office@office-desktop:~$ find . -name Superuser-3.1.3-arm-signed.zip
./Downloads/Superuser-3.1.3-arm-signed.zip

OK.. So from this line we know that the zip file is ./Downloads/Superuser-3.1.3-arm-signed.zip. Also, since the location starts with a . this means it's a RELATIVE path; relative to your current directory.

Your current directory is where you had changed to via the cd command, which since we did NOT supply a name after it, means to your HOME directory, that is also referenced to as the shorthand name ~.

This means that a NON relative path for that file is ~/Downloads/Superuser-3.1.3-arm-signed.zip (notice I changed the initial character from a . to the ~).

Putting all this together means this should work

Code:

cd
rm -rf vox
mkdir vox
cd vox
mkdir superuser
cd superuser
unzip ~/Downloads/Superuser-3.1.3-arm-signed.zip

mightyzazz · 03-18-2014, 01:34 PM

Thanks, PeterT, that worked a treat! Have made real progress, but have now got stuck at the line

Password:
su: Authentication failure

a couple of lines before BACKING UP THE VOX
I used the only password I know, and that is the one I use for all of the other password request stages. Is there a second password, which I have forgotten about, perhaps created at the install of Lubuntu in the first place? If so, is it possible to retrieve it somehow? Once done, at what point can I pick up the task, or do I have to start again from scratch?

Thanks Again,

Roberto.

01-19-2014, 11:59 PM	#183
Difflugia Testate Amoeba Posts: 3,049 Karma: 27300000 Join Date: Sep 2012 Device: Many Android devices, Kindle 2, Toshiba e755 PocketPC	I put together what I hope is a comprehensive guide to rooting your Vox and increasing the internal storage capacity while you're at it. I tried to be careful, but typing this stuff in wrong could brick your Vox or your computer (or at least force you to reinstall Windows). If you see any error messages, stop and ask. If you are going to follow these directions, I recommend reading them through enough to be familiar with them. If you really want to be prepared, find a few old USB flash drives and practice things like making partitions and copying one drive to another. If I've made a mistake in my directions, it might not be obvious unless you're familiar with how Linux handles hard drive devices and partitions. I'll feel really, really sorry for you if something breaks, but that's it, so be careful and on your own head be it. GETTING STARTED The first thing we want to do is make a directory to work in. We're going to create some temporary files and such, and it's easiest if we keep them all in one spot. Then, if we mess up, we can delete the directory and start over. First, we're going to create a rooted, but otherwise exact duplicate of the stock Vox memory card. After that, we'll modify it to take advantage of a larger card. We're going to need the following hardware: The original Micro SD Card from the inside of the Vox A new 8GB or larger Micro SD Card for the rooted image A USB Micro SD Card reader If you're booting from a live CD, a 16GB or larger USB flash drive for your working directory A notepad and pen or pencil We'll need the original memory card removed from the Vox, another card that's 8GB or larger (preferably SanDisk class 4; others may run slowly) and a USB memory card reader. If you use a larger card, then we can take advantage of the extra space later. You'll need to have access to a directory with at least 10GB free. You've said that you're using VirtualBox, but I've also included instructions for using a 16GB (or larger) USB flash drive for your working directory. You're also going to need the root password for your system. Please note that this process may take several hours, most of it downloading firmware (depending on the speed of your internet connection) and copying images to and from the memory cards (depending on the speed of your USB hardware and the cards). PREPARE YOUR WORKING DIRECTORY If you're using Linux installed in a virtual machine or on your hard drive (remember that you need about 10GB free), then type the following: Code: mkdir vox cd vox Now skip to the section named PREPARING THE FILES. If you're booting from a live CD and don't have a hard drive partition to use as a working directory, use the following directions. The benefit to this method is that you could actually disconnect your computer's hard drive to do this so that you know for sure that it won't get erased. The first thing we need to do is get the flash drive mounted. Most systems automount USB drives if you plug them in. Mine doesn't, so I'm kind of guessing about exactly what will happen. If something doesn't look right, let me know and I'll try to figure out what's going on. First, we need to write down a few bits of information. In your terminal, type the following: Code: id When I type it, I see this: Code: > id uid=100(bowz) gid=100(users) groups=100(users),11(floppy),17(audio),18(video),19(cdrom),93(scanner) The information that we're interested in are the numbers following "uid" and "gid". Mine are both 100, but yours won't necessarily be the same. Write them down in order of uid:gid ("100:100"). As an aside, if either of those numbers is 0, or if you see 0 anywhere in the "groups" list, then you're performing commands as root all the time. That's a bad idea. The rest of these commands would work, but I recommend that you stop and let me know so we can try to fix it. Now we're going to prepare the flash drive. In your terminal, type the following: Code: tail -f /var/log/messages That will start displaying system messages in real time, which will help us figure out what device your system assigns to the USB drive. The output on mine when I do that looks like this: Code: > tail -f /var/log/messages Jan 19 17:32:44 dungheap blueman-mechanism: loading RfKill Jan 19 17:33:04 dungheap logger: ACPI group video / action LCD is not defined Jan 19 17:33:05 dungheap last message repeated 5 times Jan 19 17:33:13 dungheap blueman-mechanism: Exiting Jan 19 17:51:07 dungheap -- MARK -- Jan 19 18:11:07 dungheap -- MARK -- Jan 19 18:31:07 dungheap -- MARK -- Jan 19 18:34:13 dungheap kernel: [ 3807.920339] EXT4-fs (loop0): mounted filesystem with ordered data mode. Opts: (null) Jan 19 18:45:20 dungheap logger: ACPI action lid is not defined Jan 19 19:02:49 dungheap logger: ACPI action lid is not defined Yours should look similar, but the messages themselves don't really matter at this point. You can see from the above that my system is named "dungheap" and I closed the lid (it's a laptop) to put my daughter to bed. Now insert the USB flash drive. You should see output similar to the following. Code: Jan 19 19:44:40 dungheap kernel: [ 8035.217593] usb 1-3: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 5 Jan 19 19:44:40 dungheap kernel: [ 8035.333488] usb 1-3: New USB device found, idVendor=1908, idProduct=0225 Jan 19 19:44:40 dungheap kernel: [ 8035.333502] usb 1-3: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3 Jan 19 19:44:40 dungheap kernel: [ 8035.333512] usb 1-3: Product: USB2.0 Device Jan 19 19:44:40 dungheap kernel: [ 8035.333520] usb 1-3: Manufacturer: Generic Jan 19 19:44:40 dungheap kernel: [ 8035.333527] usb 1-3: SerialNumber: 20120218120009 Jan 19 19:44:40 dungheap kernel: [ 8035.337091] scsi8 : usb-storage 1-3:1.0 Jan 19 19:44:41 dungheap kernel: [ 8036.338805] scsi 8:0:0:0: Direct-Access Generic Mass-Storage 1.09 PQ: 0 ANSI: 2 Jan 19 19:44:41 dungheap kernel: [ 8036.339606] sd 8:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg2 type 0 Jan 19 19:44:42 dungheap kernel: [ 8037.078141] sd 8:0:0:0: [sdb] 30679040 512-byte logical blocks: (15.7 GB/14.6 GiB) Jan 19 19:44:42 dungheap kernel: [ 8037.080354] sd 8:0:0:0: [sdb] Write Protect is off Jan 19 19:44:42 dungheap kernel: [ 8037.088234] sdb: sdb1 Jan 19 19:44:42 dungheap kernel: [ 8037.091100] sd 8:0:0:0: [sdb] Attached SCSI removable disk The line second from the bottom tells me that the system assigned sdb to the flash drive and it has one partition (sdb1). Write the drive designation down on your notepad. If there's only one partition (in this case, sdb1) go ahead and write that down. If there are no partitions, (you only see sdb), then write that down instead. Since a brand-new flash drive usually has a VFAT partition on it, we're going to reformat it as an EXT2 filesystem. This is necessary because some of the operations we'll need to do in our working directory won't work with VFAT. Since your system probably automounted the flash drive, we'll need to unmount it. Press CTRL-c to stop the log output and enter the following: Code: mount That will show you a list of mounted filesystems. Mine looks like this: Code: > mount /dev/root on / type ext3 (rw,relatime,errors=continue,barrier=0,data=ordered) proc on /proc type proc (rw) sysfs on /sys type sysfs (rw) tmpfs on /dev/shm type tmpfs (rw) /dev/sdb1 on /mnt/usb type vfat (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev,user=bowz) We're looking for the same drive that we wrote down, sdb1 (or whatever yours was). If there were multiple partitions (like sdb1 and sdb2), you should see one of them, so write that down. Code: su It will ask for your root password. After typing it in, the command prompt should change to "#". Everything you do until you type "exit" will be done with no questions asked, even if it trashes your system. Be careful. Now unmount the drive. For the following commands, replace sdb1 with the name that you saw in the log output. Code: umount /dev/sdb1 FORMATTING THE DRIVE The easiest thing to do here is just reformat the partition we just unmounted. This will erase everything on the partition and Windows will no longer be able to read it. Still as root ("#" command prompt), type the following. Remember that this is formatting whatever drive you're telling it to. This is the most dangerous part of the journey, so again, be careful. If you aren't 100% sure, stop and ask. Code: mkfs.ext2 /dev/sdb1 This may take a few minutes, but you should see something similar to the following when it's done: Code: Filesystem label= OS type: Linux Block size=1024 (log=0) Fragment size=1024 (log=0) Stride=0 blocks, Stripe width=0 blocks 65536 inodes, 262144 blocks 13107 blocks (5.00%) reserved for the super user First data block=1 Maximum filesystem blocks=67371008 32 block groups 8192 blocks per group, 8192 fragments per group 2048 inodes per group Superblock backups stored on blocks: 8193, 24577, 40961, 57345, 73729, 204801, 221185 Writing inode tables: done Writing superblocks and filesystem accounting information: done This filesystem will be automatically checked every 30 mounts or 180 days, whichever comes first. Use tune2fs -c or -i to override. We're finally ready to mount the flash drive as our working directory. You should still have the "#" prompt. Enter the following, again replacing sdb1 with the drive designation that you wrote down. Code: mkdir /mnt/vox mount -t ext2 /dev/sdb1 /mnt/vox cd /mnt/vox Now we're going to make the working directory. Replace the 100:100 with the uid:gid numbers that you wrote down earlier. Code: mkdir vox chown 100:100 vox exit After typing "exit", you're no longer root and the "#" prompt should go away. You're also in whatever directory you started in before all of those commands, so let's go to your new working directory. Code: cd /mnt/vox/vox There. Now we can go to the next stage. PREPARING THE FILES Now let's download the software that we'll need. The command that we're going to add to the Vox is "su" (the same "switch user" or "superuser" application that we used before on our Linux system) and the accompanying SuperUser.apk. Both are available at the following website: http://androidsu.com/superuser/. Download the latest stable version for ARM devices, which is currently Superuser-3.1.3-arm-signed.zip. Once the zip file is downloaded, we're going to unzip the contents so we can copy them to the Vox later. Code: mkdir superuser cd superuser unzip ../Superuser-3.1.3-arm-signed.zip You should see the following output: Code: Archive: ../Superuser-3.1.3-arm-signed.zip signed by SignApk inflating: META-INF/MANIFEST.MF inflating: META-INF/CERT.SF inflating: META-INF/CERT.RSA inflating: META-INF/com/google/android/update-binary inflating: META-INF/com/google/android/updater-script inflating: system/app/Superuser.apk inflating: system/bin/su Now type the following to move back to our vox directory. Code: cd .. Now we're going to download the current Vox firmware (thanks, hecatae). Code: mkdir fwparts cd fwparts curl -O "http://download.kobobooks.com/vox/images/eng.CAN.20120604.161216/x[000-166]" The download will take a while, totalling 166MB. When it's done, we'll concatenate it into a single file. Code: cat x* > ../update.zip cd .. ls -al You should see output that looks similar to this: Code: total 169040 drwxr-xr-x 4 bowz users 4096 Jan 19 18:21 . drwxr-xr-x 193 bowz users 16384 Jan 19 18:18 .. -rw------- 1 bowz users 1324669 Jan 19 17:56 Superuser-3.1.3-arm-signed.zip drwxr-xr-x 2 bowz users 4096 Jan 19 18:16 fwparts drwxr-xr-x 4 bowz users 4096 Jan 19 17:56 superuser -rw-r--r-- 1 bowz users 171558652 Jan 19 18:21 update.zip Now we're going to root update.zip, which will become our recovery image. Since the chance of Kobo updating the firmware is becoming vanishingly small, this means a factory reset will bring us back to a rooted copy of the latest firmware. Code: mkdir update cd update unzip ../update.zip cd .. mkdir imagemount su After typing "su", you should see a "Password:" prompt. We're telling the system that we want to become root and it wants the root password, so type that in. The command prompt will change to "#". Everything you do between now and when you type "exit" will be done with no questions asked, even if it trashes your computer. Be careful. Now we'll mount the system image in the update and add the superuser files. Code: mount -t ext4 update/system.img imagemount -o loop cp superuser/system/app/Superuser.apk imagemount/app/ cp superuser/system/bin/su imagemount/bin/ chmod 4755 imagemount/bin/su umount imagemount exit After typing "exit", the command prompt should no longer by "#". Now we'll zip it back up into the recovery package. Code: cd update zip -r9 ../update-rooted.zip . cd .. BACKING UP THE VOX Now we're prepared to create the rooted SD Card. First, we need to make a copy of the memory card from the Vox. We'll then have two backups, the original SD Card and the copy in our working directory. We're going to watch our log again. Code: tail -f /var/log/messages Now put the SD Card from the Vox into your USB card reader and then insert the card reader into the computer. You should see output very similar to the following: Code: Jan 19 21:08:31 dungheap kernel: [13065.942580] usb 1-3: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 7 Jan 19 21:08:31 dungheap kernel: [13066.060329] usb 1-3: New USB device found, idVendor=1908, idProduct=0225 Jan 19 21:08:31 dungheap kernel: [13066.060344] usb 1-3: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3 Jan 19 21:08:31 dungheap kernel: [13066.060354] usb 1-3: Product: USB2.0 Device Jan 19 21:08:31 dungheap kernel: [13066.060361] usb 1-3: Manufacturer: Generic Jan 19 21:08:31 dungheap kernel: [13066.060368] usb 1-3: SerialNumber: 20120218120009 Jan 19 21:08:31 dungheap kernel: [13066.063328] scsi10 : usb-storage 1-3:1.0 Jan 19 21:08:32 dungheap kernel: [13067.065646] scsi 10:0:0:0: Direct-Access Generic Mass-Storage 1.09 PQ: 0 ANSI: 2 Jan 19 21:08:32 dungheap kernel: [13067.066389] sd 10:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg3 type 0 Jan 19 21:08:33 dungheap kernel: [13067.760280] sd 10:0:0:0: [sdc] 15523840 512-byte logical blocks: (7.94 GB/7.40 GiB) Jan 19 21:08:33 dungheap kernel: [13067.761191] sd 10:0:0:0: [sdc] Write Protect is off Jan 19 21:08:33 dungheap kernel: [13067.773552] sdc: sdc1 sdc2 sdc3 < sdc5 sdc6 > sdc4 Jan 19 21:08:33 dungheap kernel: [13067.779330] sd 10:0:0:0: [sdc] Attached SCSI removable disk The second line from the bottom tells us the system assigned device sdc to the SD Card. Your partition list ("sdc1 sdc2 sdc3 < sdc5 sdc6 > sdc4") might have different letters, but the numbers should be the same because that's how the Vox card is partitioned. Write down the letters (in my case above, sdc). None of the partitions is VFAT, so automounting software shouldn't mount any of them. Hit CTRL-c again to stop the logger and check the mount table again (by typing "mount"), just to be safe. You shouldn't see any of the partitions listed in the output to the "mount" command. If you do, become root and unmount any that show up. For example, if you see /dev/sdc1 in your mount table, do the following: Code: su umount /dev/sdc1 exit Let's make our backup copy of the card. Using the letters that you wrote down instead of sdc, enter the following: Code: su dd if=/dev/sdc of=./vox_image.bin bs=512 exit This will take quite a long time, like up to an hour on slow hardware (and any part in the chain of card, reader, USB hardware, CPU can be the bottleneck), so don't panic. When it's done and you've typed "exit", take the USB reader out. Remove the Vox SD Card from the reader and replace it with the new one that will be your rooted copy. Put the Vox original someplace safe. COPYING THE IMAGE TO THE NEW CARD Your system will probably assign the same drive designation to this one as the last one, but we'll verify it just to be safe. Code: tail -f /var/log/messages Now put the card reader in the PC. Since this is a new card, it'll probably only have a single partition again and it will probably get automounted. Write down the drive designation and hit CTRL-c. Check the "mount" command to see if it got mounted. If it did, unmount it: Code: su umount /dev/sdc1 exit Now we're going to copy the image that we made to the new card. Again, be careful to use the drive designation that you saw in the log output. Code: su dd if=./vox_image.bin of=/dev/sdc bs=512 exit This will take even longer than the read. Be patient and don't panic. When it's done, pull the reader out of the PC, wait a few seconds, and put it back in. The partition table gets cached and that will refresh it. It also wouldn't hurt to watch /var/log/messages again, either, just to make sure everything's OK. ROOTING YOUR NEW CARD If you were to put the new card inside your Vox and put it back together, you would be an exact copy of the old one, complete with all of your apps, user information, books and data. If you keep your backups, you can now go back to that state anytime you want as long as your hardware holds out. We're going to root it, however. Remember, instead of sdc in the following commands, use the drive designation that you wrote down. The numbers will be the same as I have below (so if the drive that you wrote down was "hde" instead of "sdc", you'll use "/dev/hde2" in the first set of commands below). First, we're going to copy the recovery image to the new card. Code: su mount -t ext4 /dev/sdc2 imagemount ls -al imagemount You should see a file named "recovery_backup_signed.zip". If not, something's wrong. If you do see it, then still as root: Code: rm imagemount/recovery_backup_signed.zip cp update-rooted.zip imagemount/recovery_backup_signed.zip sync umount imagemount exit At this point, you could put the card back into the Vox and perform a factory reset. It would broom out all of your data, but the result would be rooted. Instead, I'm going to assume that you want to keep your data. If you want to expand the storage of your Vox, you won't get to keep your data, anyway, so you can skip this next bit and go to EXPANDING YOUR STORAGE. Code: su mount -t ext4 /dev/sdc1 imagemount cp superuser/system/app/Superuser.apk imagemount/app/ cp superuser/system/bin/su imagemount/bin/ chmod 4755 imagemount/bin/su umount imagemount exit If you don't want to expand the storage (you used an 8GB card or don't care about wasting the extra space) then you're done. You can skip to the YOU'RE DONE section. EXPANDING YOUR STORAGE If you used a 16GB or 32GB card, this will let you use the extra space for storage. It will, however, wipe out your user data and restore the Vox to rooted, but otherwise factory state. Code: su fdisk /dev/sdc You should see the following prompt: Code: Command (m for help): Type "p" and hit enter. You should see something very similar to the following. In fact, the numbers should all match exactly. Code: bash-4.1# fdisk /dev/sdc Command (m for help): p Disk /dev/sdc: 7948 MB, 7948206080 bytes 4 heads, 16 sectors/track, 242560 cylinders, total 15523840 sectors Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes Disk identifier: 0xcf3814cc Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/sdc1 92160 616448 262144+ 83 Linux /dev/sdc2 616449 1665025 524288+ 83 Linux /dev/sdc3 1665026 4286466 1310720+ 5 Extended /dev/sdc4 4286467 15523839 5618686+ 83 Linux /dev/sdc5 1665088 3762240 1048576+ 83 Linux /dev/sdc6 3762303 4286466 262082 83 Linux Command (m for help): We're going to remove and recreate several partitions. First, let's delete partitions 3-6. Enter the command "d". It will ask you which partition you want to delete. Enter "6" and hit enter. Then type "d" again and this time, enter "5". Then do the same for partitions 4 and 3. Now, we're going to create our new, larger partitions. We need to create partiton 3 as an "extended" partition that will hold partitions 5 and 6. Partition 5 is the data partition, where apps are installed and partition 6 is the Dalvik cache. On mine, I gave them 4GB split into 3.5GB for apps and 512MB for cache. This more than triples the space for apps and doubles the cache. Enter "n" to create a new partition. Enter "e" to create an extended partition. Then enter partition number 3. Hit enter to select the default first sector and type "+4G" (for four gigabytes) for the last sector. Enter "n" to create another new partition. Enter "p" to create a primary partition and select partition number 4. Hit enter twice to select default start and end blocks. This will allocate the remainder of the card for /sdata, which is where things like books are stored. Enter "n" to create another new partition. Enter "l" to create a logical partition. Hit enter to select the default first sector and type "+3500M" for (roughly) 3.5GB. Enter "n" to create another new partition. Enter "l" to create a logical partition. Hit enter twice to select the default first and last sectors. Now enter "w" to write out the partition table. To format the partitions, enter the following commands, again using the correct drive designation. Each one may take a few minutes. Code: mkfs.ext4 /dev/sdc5 mkfs.ext4 /dev/sdc6 exit The Vox will format partition 4 (/sdcard) itself when it boots. You're now ready to put the card back into the Vox. YOU'RE DONE! You can now take out your card reader. If you were using a USB flash drive for your working directory, you can now unmount it. Code: cd su umount /mnt/vox exit Take the USB drive out and put it somewhere safe as a backup in case you need to create a new internal card for your Vox. Put the new card in the internal card slot of your Vox. I recommend connecting the battery and booting it up before you put all of the screws back in just to be safe, but even a worst case scenario now has you putting the original card back in and running a Vox without root. If you didn't increase the card partition sizes, it should boot right up, but otherwise it'll take an extra long time (again, don't panic) as it formats /sdcard and rebuilds the data and cache partitions. If you changed the partition sizes, it might be a good idea to do a factory restore. To do a factory restore, which rebuilds the system from the recovery image, then you need to abort five boots in a row. To do this, power the Vox on. When the open book animation starts, hold down the power button until the Vox shuts off. Repeat. After the fifth time, you'll get a "something went wrong" message and it'll rebuild the Vox system. It doesn't repartition the card, though, so if you expanded the partition sizes, they'll stay that way. Note that the "factory restore" in the settings menu just erases /data and /sdcard, but doesn't rebuild /system. Good luck. I've tried to be complete and careful, but remember that there is a danger of hosing up your Vox and computer, so if you aren't sure about something, stop and ask. Finally, if your card ever dies and you didn't keep any backups, you can actually create an SD Card for a Vox from scratch using just the update.zip downloaded from Kobo (which I posted about here). The only problem I had was that I couldn't use the Google Play Store afterwards. I think there's a serial number or something stored on the card somewhere that I couldn't find. Last edited by Difflugia; 03-25-2014 at 10:53 AM. Reason: Added redirect in "cat" command.

01-24-2014, 03:17 PM	#186
briandking Junior Member Posts: 6 Karma: 17272 Join Date: Jan 2012 Device: kobo vox	Possible typo in the instructions I didn't test the instructions, but on reading through them it looks like you missed an output redirection arrow: cat x* ../update.zip I think was intended to be: cat x* > ../update.zip Thanks for taking the time to make such detailed instructions! Brian

03-15-2014, 05:38 PM	#192
PeterT Grand Sorcerer Posts: 12,141 Karma: 73448616 Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Toronto Device: Nexus 7, Clara, Touch, Tolino EPOS	Are you sure you DID download the Superuser-3.1.3-arm-signed.zip file? Why not try (from the command prompt) Code: cd find . -name Superuser-3.1.3-arm-signed.zip This will start in your current directory (which by having done the initial cd should be your HOME directory) and look for a file called Superuser-3.1.3-arm-signed.zip If it doesn't find one, then it has NOT been downloaded

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01-08-2014, 07:37 AM	#181
mightyzazz Enthusiast Posts: 32 Karma: 10 Join Date: Aug 2013 Device: kobo vox	Please bare with me - I am old. Have now got a terminal!

01-21-2014, 01:32 PM	#184
mightyzazz Enthusiast Posts: 32 Karma: 10 Join Date: Aug 2013 Device: kobo vox	Difflugia - I am lost for words! It must have taken you hours to do all of this for me - A huge Thank-you. I can see I have my homework cut out for me this weekend. Will keep you posted as to my progress. Thanks Again, Roberto.

01-21-2014, 03:26 PM	#185
Difflugia Testate Amoeba Posts: 3,049 Karma: 27300000 Join Date: Sep 2012 Device: Many Android devices, Kindle 2, Toshiba e755 PocketPC	No problem. I look forward to hearing how it goes.

03-13-2014, 01:38 AM	#188
mightyzazz Enthusiast Posts: 32 Karma: 10 Join Date: Aug 2013 Device: kobo vox	Hi Difflugia. Finally got some time to try this. Typically stumbling at the first hurdle. Running LINUX off Lubuntu 13.10, so have gone from PREPARE YOUR WORKING DIRECTORY straight to PREPARING THE FILES. Have got the following messages:- office@office-desktop:~$ mkdir vox mkdir: cannot create directory ‘vox’: File exists office@office-desktop:~$ cd vox office@office-desktop:~/vox$ mkdir superuser mkdir: cannot create directory ‘superuser’: File exists office@office-desktop:~/vox$ cd superuser office@office-desktop:~/vox/superuser$ unzip ../Superuser-3.1.3-arm-signed.zip unzip: cannot find or open ../Superuser-3.1.3-arm-signed.zip, ../Superuser-3.1.3-arm-signed.zip.zip or ../Superuser-3.1.3-arm-signed.zip.ZIP. office@office-desktop:~/vox/superuser$ mkdir superuser mkdir: cannot create directory ‘superuser’: File exists office@office-desktop:~/vox/superuser$ cd superuser office@office-desktop:~/vox/superuser/superuser$ unzip ../Superuser-3.1.3-arm-signed.zip unzip: cannot find or open ../Superuser-3.1.3-arm-signed.zip, ../Superuser-3.1.3-arm-signed.zip.zip or ../Superuser-3.1.3-arm-signed.zip.ZIP. office@office-desktop:~/vox/superuser/superuser$ I am obviously doing something basically wrong. I have been cutting and pasting your boxed instructions. Should I put in each line individually followed by a return? I know it sounds basic, but I am a true novice, even though I have been through a couple of Youtube tutorials. I would love to complete this challenge - please help, if you get time. Thanks, Roberto.

03-13-2014, 01:41 AM	#189
mightyzazz Enthusiast Posts: 32 Karma: 10 Join Date: Aug 2013 Device: kobo vox	One other thing. I downloaded the direct link - Superuser-3.1.3-arm-signed.zip. Do I still have to download additional things from http://androidsu.com/superuser/. ? Roberto.

03-15-2014, 03:14 PM	#191
mightyzazz Enthusiast Posts: 32 Karma: 10 Join Date: Aug 2013 Device: kobo vox	Hi Difflugia. Have tried your suggestions, but still getting the same messages. Have started from scratch, changed the double period to a tilda, deleted all the downloaded files from my downloads folder, redownloaded the zip file, even tried the x86 zip. They both seem to download correctly (they have sub folders etc). I have a new install of Lubuntu 1310, and could that be missing some function? Here is my screen:- office@office-desktop:~$ cd office@office-desktop:~$ rm -rf vox office@office-desktop:~$ mkdir vox office@office-desktop:~$ cd vox office@office-desktop:~/vox$ mkdir superuser office@office-desktop:~/vox$ cd superuser office@office-desktop:~/vox/superuser$ unzip ../Superuser-3.1.3-arm-signed.zip unzip: cannot find or open ../Superuser-3.1.3-arm-signed.zip, ../Superuser-3.1.3-arm-signed.zip.zip or ../Superuser-3.1.3-arm-signed.zip.ZIP. office@office-desktop:~/vox/superuser$ cd office@office-desktop:~$ rm -rf vox office@office-desktop:~$ mkdir vox office@office-desktop:~$ cd vox office@office-desktop:~/vox$ office@office-desktop:~/vox$ mkdir superuser office@office-desktop:~/vox$ cd superuser office@office-desktop:~/vox/superuser$ unzip ../Superuser-3.1.3-arm-signed.zip unzip: cannot find or open ../Superuser-3.1.3-arm-signed.zip, ../Superuser-3.1.3-arm-signed.zip.zip or ../Superuser-3.1.3-arm-signed.zip.ZIP. office@office-desktop:~/vox/superuser$ office@office-desktop:~/vox/superuser$ unzip ~/Superuser-3.1.3-arm-signed.zip unzip: cannot find or open /home/office/Superuser-3.1.3-arm-signed.zip, /home/office/Superuser-3.1.3-arm-signed.zip.zip or /home/office/Superuser-3.1.3-arm-signed.zip.ZIP. office@office-desktop:~/vox/superuser$ office@office-desktop:~/vox/superuser$ mkdir superuser office@office-desktop:~/vox/superuser$ cd superuser office@office-desktop:~/vox/superuser/superuser$ unzip ../Superuser-3.1.3-arm-signed.zip unzip: cannot find or open ../Superuser-3.1.3-arm-signed.zip, ../Superuser-3.1.3-arm-signed.zip.zip or ../Superuser-3.1.3-arm-signed.zip.ZIP. office@office-desktop:~/vox/superuser/superuser$ office@office-desktop:~/vox/superuser/superuser$ unzip ../Superuser-3.1.3-arm-signed.zip unzip: cannot find or open ../Superuser-3.1.3-arm-signed.zip, ../Superuser-3.1.3-arm-signed.zip.zip or ../Superuser-3.1.3-arm-signed.zip.ZIP. office@office-desktop:~/vox/superuser/superuser$ unzip ~/Superuser-3.1.3-arm-signed.zip unzip: cannot find or open /home/office/Superuser-3.1.3-arm-signed.zip, /home/office/Superuser-3.1.3-arm-signed.zip.zip or /home/office/Superuser-3.1.3-arm-signed.zip.ZIP. office@office-desktop:~/vox/superuser/superuser$ mkdir superuser office@office-desktop:~/vox/superuser/superuser$ cd superuser office@office-desktop:~/vox/superuser/superuser/superuser$ unzip ../Superuser-3.1.3-x86-signed.zip unzip: cannot find or open ../Superuser-3.1.3-x86-signed.zip, ../Superuser-3.1.3-x86-signed.zip.zip or ../Superuser-3.1.3-x86-signed.zip.ZIP. office@office-desktop:~/vox/superuser/superuser/superuser$ Will keep trying, as this is a great learning experience for me. Have I missed an important step jumping straight to preparing files, from preparing working directory? As a geneticist for the last twenty years, I welcome the challenge of trying to crack computer code over genetic code! Thanks, Roberto.

03-17-2014, 07:26 AM	#193
mightyzazz Enthusiast Posts: 32 Karma: 10 Join Date: Aug 2013 Device: kobo vox	Hi PeterT and thanks for your help. This is what happened, starting from scratch:- office@office-desktop:~$ cd office@office-desktop:~$ rm -rf vox office@office-desktop:~$ mkdir vox office@office-desktop:~$ cd vox office@office-desktop:~/vox$ mkdir superuser office@office-desktop:~/vox$ cd superuser office@office-desktop:~/vox/superuser$ unzip ../Superuser-3.1.3-arm-signed.zip unzip: cannot find or open ../Superuser-3.1.3-arm-signed.zip, ../Superuser-3.1.3-arm-signed.zip.zip or ../Superuser-3.1.3-arm-signed.zip.ZIP. office@office-desktop:~/vox/superuser$ office@office-desktop:~/vox/superuser$ cd office@office-desktop:~$ find . -name Superuser-3.1.3-arm-signed.zip ./Downloads/Superuser-3.1.3-arm-signed.zip find: `./.config/enchant': Permission denied find: `./.cache/dconf': Permission denied office@office-desktop:~$ I am following the instructions and downloading from the link on the Firefox web browser which tells me I have successfully downloaded a 1.3MB zip file which is in /home/office/Downloads. Should I be doing all of this within the terminal instead, or is that a dumb question? The download seemed quick on Firefox, but the file properties does say 1.3 MiB size. I do get the feeling that I am missing something obvious. To save annoying you great helpers, maybe you can point me in the direction of what basic commands I need to be competent in, before going on further. Thanks again, Roberto.

03-18-2014, 01:34 PM	#195
mightyzazz Enthusiast Posts: 32 Karma: 10 Join Date: Aug 2013 Device: kobo vox	Thanks, PeterT, that worked a treat! Have made real progress, but have now got stuck at the line Password: su: Authentication failure a couple of lines before BACKING UP THE VOX I used the only password I know, and that is the one I use for all of the other password request stages. Is there a second password, which I have forgotten about, perhaps created at the install of Lubuntu in the first place? If so, is it possible to retrieve it somehow? Once done, at what point can I pick up the task, or do I have to start again from scratch? Thanks Again, Roberto.

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