Root for Note Air 2?

[Icey]

can someone explain me what's the point to root the air 2 ?

[Renate]

The point of rooting is mainly to eliminate things that annoy you. If nothing annoys you, you probably have no need. I didn't like that a long push on PageDown did some wacky function (I forget which) instead of doing multiple PageDowns. I didn't like that I had to disable "High Contrast Fonts" for each application, so I disabled that. Also, in this case, it would allow you to disable the malfunctioning touch screen (but leave the digitizer running).

[downeaster59]

Originally Posted by Renate

Sure, give it a go. EDL mode, "python edl.py" or "edl.py" or "edl" or whatever works.
I don't know if your install installed the drivers too.
The message that edl will tell you.
If you have no drivers, at least download that 660 driver and explicitly reference it.
If "print-gpt" works, try "r"
As long as you stay away from other commands you should be safe.

When I run "edl", the following is what came up. It looks to me like something didn't install properly:

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/usr/local/bin/edl", line 4, in <module>
__import__('pkg_resources').run_script('edlclient= =3.53', 'edl')
File "/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/Extras/lib/python/pkg_resources/__init__.py", line 3241, in <module>
@_call_aside
File "/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/Extras/lib/python/pkg_resources/__init__.py", line 3225, in _call_aside
f(*args, **kwargs)
File "/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/Extras/lib/python/pkg_resources/__init__.py", line 3254, in _initialize_master_working_set
working_set = WorkingSet._build_master()
File "/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/Extras/lib/python/pkg_resources/__init__.py", line 583, in _build_master
ws.require(__requires__)
File "/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/Extras/lib/python/pkg_resources/__init__.py", line 900, in require
needed = self.resolve(parse_requirements(requirements))
File "/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/Extras/lib/python/pkg_resources/__init__.py", line 786, in resolve
raise DistributionNotFound(req, requirers)
pkg_resources.DistributionNotFound: The 'pycryptodome' distribution was not found and is required by edlclient

[Renate]

Did I mention that I don't like Python? Ok, I won't get on my soapbox, but it seems like there's always a missing library.

Originally Posted by downeaster59

The 'pycryptodome' distribution was not found and is required by edlclient

Are you using pip?

pip install pycryptodome

[Markismus]

Apparently, you can automate installing dependencies with pipreq: https://stackoverflow.com/a/63930119

[downeaster59]

Now, when I enter "pip3 list" in Terminal, I get this:

Package Version
------------------ ---------
certifi 2021.10.8
charset-normalizer 2.0.8
docopt 0.6.2
idna 3.3
pip 21.3.1
pipreqs 0.4.11
pycryptodome 3.11.0
requests 2.26.0
setuptools 49.2.1
six 1.15.0
urllib3 1.26.7
wheel 0.33.1
yarg 0.1.9

But Terminal still doesn't recognize the pipreqs command. Moreover, when I use the edl command, I still get the message that pycryptodome is not present.

I'm beginning to wonder if rooting is really worth the trouble!

[Renate]

I have no idea. Mine works. This is the list:

Package    Version
---------- -------
capstone   4.0.2
colorama   0.4.4
docopt     0.6.2
linecache2 1.0.0
oslo.i18n  5.0.1
packaging  20.9
pbr        5.6.0
pip        21.1.1
pyparsing  2.4.7
pytz       2021.1
pyusb      1.1.1
setuptools 56.0.0
six        1.16.0
traceback2 1.4.0
urllib3    1.26.4
wrapt      1.12.1

I was going to write my own Windows chopped-down version of that with no dependencies.

[downeaster59]

I'm putting this on hold for now unless someone else out there can tell me what to do from here. Thanks @Renate for all your help!

[downeaster59]

Originally Posted by Renate

The Mac is fine. Stick with that and skip the VM stuff.
You can run "lsusb -v" on the command line and look for the 9008=good, 900e=not good.

If you have that you can follow the instructions here for install: https://github.com/bkerler/edl

python edl.py --loader=try-that-660-file.bin --memory=emmc
python edl.py print-gpt --memory=emmc
python edl.py r boot boot.img --memory=emmc

Well, I got back to it, and was able to get further along. I tried to install the bkerler software you referenced above, but eight warnings came up as it tried to install, so the installation appears to be incomplete. However, the python3 installation appeared to be incomplete when i first did it, and now it appears to be functioning properly. So, who knows?

How can I tell if the drivers for my Note Air 2 installed?

Thanks!

[Renate]

The install is just putting it somewhere and running it. I don't have any idea what warnings you got. Could you tell me?

Ok, here's what to do:

pip uninstall pycryptodome
pip install pycryptodomex

Please just shoot me before I have to use Python again.

[downeaster59]

OK, I did the uninstall and the (re)install of pycryptodome, and got this...

ERROR: pip's dependency resolver does not currently take into account all the packages that are installed. This behaviour is the source of the following dependency conflicts.
edlclient 3.53 requires colorama, which is not installed.
edlclient 3.53 requires lxml, which is not installed.
edlclient 3.53 requires pylzma, which is not installed.
edlclient 3.53 requires pyserial, which is not installed.
edlclient 3.53 requires pyusb, which is not installed.
edlclient 3.53 requires usb, which is not installed.

Just to try it out, I set up an Ubuntu VM on my Mac and tried installing everything there. Everything installed perfectly. But... the current version of Parallels Desktop has some glitch where Android devices won't connect to any VMs.

Just shoot me, too!!!

[downeaster59]

If you have time, here's what I get on Terminal when I try to install the bkerler software...

[Renate]

Originally Posted by downeaster59

OK, I did the uninstall and the (re)install of pycryptodome, and got this...

No! It's not a reinstall, it's pycryptodomex

Just pip install the other stuff that you don't have, like colorama. Keep to native Mac (if you can). VM and USB can be a big pain.

[downeaster59]

Originally Posted by Renate

No! It's not a reinstall, it's pycryptodomex

Just pip install the other stuff that you don't have, like colorama. Keep to native Mac (if you can). VM and USB can be a big pain.

My bad on that one! I saw the x and should have asked you about it first. I assumed it might be a typo!

I have pip installed that other stuff.

In then tried once again to install the bkerler software.

This was my result:

The package setup script has attempted to modify files on your system
that are not within the EasyInstall build area, and has been aborted.

This package cannot be safely installed by EasyInstall, and may not
support alternate installation locations even if you run its setup
script by hand. Please inform the package's author and the EasyInstall
maintainers to find out if a fix or workaround is available.[/I]

I have an M1 Mac. I wonder if that's part of the problem. I also need to use pip3 for pip commands and python3 for python commands.

I won't get back to this for a while, so there's no hurry in getting back to me. You've been most willing to help. Thanks!

[Renate]

You don't have to compile/install, just copy it and run it from source.