Root [GUIDE] Full bash shell with nano, tab completion, and color over ssh

[jmxp69]

I cobbled all of this together from various places on the web, but I think the credit for the binaries goes to Paul @ MoDaCo.

Nandroid before going any further!

Files you'll need:

QuickSSHD (Download this from the Market. $1.50). I'm just going to assume if you're still reading, you know what this is for and how to use it. It's braindead simple. I think dropbear can be installed and configured manually, but for the $1.50...meh.

The rest are zipped up here: terminfo.zip, nano, bash, profile**

Unzip bashnano.zip onto your SDCard.

From adb shell:

Install Terminfo:
cp -r /sdcard/terminfo /system/etc

Setup Bash:
cp /sdcard/bash /system/bin/bash_new
mv /system/bin/sh /system/bin/sh.old
ln -s /system/bin/bash_new /system/bin/sh
cp /sdcard/profile /etc

Setup Nano:
cp /sdcard/nano /system/bin


I'm not sure if this setup will have any impact on sh scripts being used in the various ROMs, so use this at your own risk.

This will give you full bash over adb, but I haven't figured out where profile goes to add terminal/color et al. for adb.

Anyway, hope y'all find it useful.

**profile reflects a few personal choices for aliases and colors, but you can edit to your personal taste.

 

[Sepero]

Very awesome! I only wish this was in apk package form lol
But perhaps that isn't possible because of permissions.


I didn't need QuickSSHD. Any regular terminal should work, and many are $0 free on the market. I recommend "Terminal Emulator" or "ConnectBot".

Also, a few steps that appear to be missing:
1. Before attempting to write to /system/bin, you need to remount it as writable
./adb remount (through USB)
OR
mount -o rw,remount /dev/block/mtdblock1 /system (as root on terminal)
2. chmod 755 /system/bin/bash_new (make it executable)
3. chmod 755 /system/bin/nano (make it executable)


These programs work on my rooted motorola cliq, with a few exceptions. I actually had to store the files (bash and nano) in /data/ (mtdblock2), and symlink to them from /system/bin, because there wasn't enough free space on the root partition.

My steps were similar to this:
1. Through USB run ./adb remount
2. Login to android terminal as root (Terminal Emulator)
3. Run these commands
cp /sdcard/bashnano/profile /etc
cp /sdcard/bashnano/bash /data
cp /sdcard/bashnano/nano /data
chmod 755 /data/bash
chmod 755 /data/nano
cd /system/bin/
mv sh sh.old
ln -s /data/bash sh
ln -s /data/bash bash
ln -s /data/nano nano


Using BASH special keys:
Control (Ctrl) key = Wheel button
Escape key (esc) = Ctrl + 1 + 2 (comes in handy big time if using vi)
Go to beginning of line = Ctrl +a
Go to end of line = Ctrl + e
Tab completion = Ctrl + i
The commandline redirection ">" = Shift + Alt + l
The commandline redirection "<" = Shift + Alt + k
The pipe character "|" = Shift + Alt + a
Cut = Ctrl + w
Paste = Ctrl + y
Reverse search previous commands = Ctrl + r
Break reverse search = Ctrl + g
Reverse slash "\" = Ctrl + Shift + n
Carrot key "^" = Ctrl + Shift + j

Anyone Please write in if you know how to input any other special characters, such as "~" or "[" or "]".


I recommend Remounting your /system read-write and downloading BUSYBOX from the market Before installing bashnano. Backup your system.

 

[cabbie]

yea...i feel dumb. what is the objective of all this?

 

[Sepero]

Bash shell does not appear to be recognizing the file /etc/profile

Not 100% sure

 

[Sepero]

yea...i feel dumb. what is the objective of all this?

The objective is to install the Bash shell and Nano text editor. These are for use in the commandline/terminal.

 

[Hazy]

The objective is to install the Bash shell and Nano text editor. These are for use in the commandline/terminal.

Exactly what is this gonna let us do on/to our phones?

 

[Sepero]

Exactly what is this gonna let us do on/to our phones?

ROOT?
I just realized that jmxp69 did not state that the phone needs to be rooted before you can install these programs. I'm pretty sure that your phone must be ROOTED first.

I use Ubuntu Linux as my desktop operating system. On my desktop, I use the bash shell almost everyday. With the Bash shell, I can perform operations that are impossible with graphical programs (such as batch operations, appending to files, changing owners/groups/permissions, remounting/reformating file system, automated/timed/looped scripts, much more).

Nano is a popular text editor that runs in the terminal. It is useful for simply editing text files or creating bash scripts.

 

[laredo7mm]

Exactly what is this gonna let us do on/to our phones?

Nothing for the every day user.

It is a different story if you are a Dev or are familiar with command line stuff.

 

[StuartRothrock]

THANKS FOR THE NICE INFO!!

I didnt rename bash
I put profile in /system/etc
created /system/etc/shells with /system/bin/bash
and sshd uses bash automatically

wasnt too crazy renaming /system/bin/sh...

 

[Sepero]

Uploading another copy of the zip file incase the original server ever goes down.

 

[Sepero]

Also there is a free editor and screen keyboard on the market named "touchqode" that is very useful for typing in programming/scripting code and special characters. java php perl python c++ etc

It supports ftp, file syncing, syntax highlighting and more.

market://details?id=com.touchqode.editor
http://www.touchqode.com

 

[tozhan]

I just spent an hour doing this before I decided to google it and find it's been done! Though I have a problem, I have to retype 'export TERMINFO=/etc/terminfo' each time I run a shell to get nano to run. I have tried to script this command but it seems ONLY typing it manually will work. Any ideas how to fix that?

 

[Sepero]

I just spent an hour doing this before I decided to google it and find it's been done! Though I have a problem, I have to retype 'export TERMINFO=/etc/terminfo' each time I run a shell to get nano to run. I have tried to script this command but it seems ONLY typing it manually will work. Any ideas how to fix that?

Go into your terminal app preferences and insert ";export TERMINFO=/etc/terminfo;" in the initial/initialization command.

 

[EarlyMon]

You can also do it the /system/etc/mkshrc file.

I used Vi iMproved Touch and Hackers Keyboard here, these settings also work for touchqode.



For bash, I add a line to source my own /sdcard/bashrc to the initialization for Terminal Emulator.