Mount /system RW fix(?)

[Guest Nebril]

Okay so I have managed to mount the /system as RW following a guide found here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/android/software/rerun-root-write-protection-removal-t3118019

Don't run the tool, use the read-me!

This seems to have worked as I can now install busybox and it will survive the reboot
The sad news is that you can't have a custom recovery installed at the same time so any help with making this work with TWRP would be helpful

[Guest Umrtvovacz]

So I am not the only one with mount system R/W problem... Other solutions would be appreciated as I would like to keep TWRP.

[Guest macbreakweeklyfan]

What are you struggling with? 

 

1/ Open terminal

2/ Type "su" (enter)
 

3/ Type "mount -o remount,rw /system" (enter)

Done.

These are trivial Linux commands - there's not much TO go wrong, unless you're not rooted properly.

Edited September 11, 2015 by macbreakweeklyfan

[Guest Nebril]

What are you struggling with? 

 

1/ Open terminal

2/ Type "su" (enter)
 

3/ Type "mount -o remount,rw /system" (enter)

Done.

Yes that works just fine, but anything changed won't survive after rebooting

[Guest macbreakweeklyfan]

Yes that works just fine, but anything changed won't survive after rebooting

Expand on "anything changed" - we can't surmise much from that :)

thanks.

[Guest Nebril]

Expand on "anything changed" - we can't surmise much from that :)

thanks.

Okay so all these people trying to root and failing after rebooting.. That's changing files.
Yet once you install it via recovery it works just fine, that's because the recovery has RW access but booting normally doesn't.

Edited September 11, 2015 by Nebril

[Guest macbreakweeklyfan]

Okay so all these people trying to root and failing after rebooting.. That's changing files.Yet once you install it via recovery it works just fine, that's because the recovery has RW access but booting normally doesn't.

Your explanation is unclear. Please try again.

Root has R/W access - that's the whole purpose of root, to be able to read and write ANYTHING. These perms are not exclusive to a recovery mechanism.

Edited September 11, 2015 by macbreakweeklyfan

[Guest Nebril]

Your explanation is unclear. Please try again.

When rooting with kingroot it works fine until you reboot right?
That's because after rebooting everything that was changed in /system is undone and reverted back.
That's because /system is RW protected even if your file manager says otherwise.
You can rename and modify files and they will look like they have worked, and in some cases they will.
But they won't stick after rebooting unless you modify the files from within recovery

[Guest macbreakweeklyfan]

No idea. Kingroot is awful - I've never used it long enough to get tied into these endless logical knots. If your filesystem is mounted r/w, the file manager doesn't "pretend" to change things - they're either written or they're not, and if they're not then they won't stick there and then, never mind getting to the point of rebooting. 

 

Pass, sorry. 

Edited September 11, 2015 by macbreakweeklyfan

[Guest Umrtvovacz]

What are you struggling with? 

 

1/ Open terminal

2/ Type "su" (enter)
 

3/ Type "mount -o remount,rw /system" (enter)

Done.

These are trivial Linux commands - there's not much TO go wrong, unless you're not rooted properly.

That doesn't do anything. The system is still R/O. Please help.

[Guest Nebril]

That doesn't do anything. The system is still R/O. Please help.

It seems like it's the exact same situation as the ZTE ZMAX.

/system is write protected unless you are in recovery even if you are rooted on the device

[Guest Umrtvovacz]

It seems like it's the exact same situation as the ZTE ZMAX.

/system is write protected unless you are in recovery even if you are rooted on the device

Is there any way around? Lets say I need to change my hosts file. Can I put my own hosts file over the default one and overwrite it from TWRP? If so, how? (Can I generate hosts file with AdAway on different device and use that one?)

[Guest macbreakweeklyfan]

My phone is rooted and I've got FULL rw perms and have custom binaries in certain folders. The answer is as plain as the nose on your face - clean stock flash then update and THEN root (in that order) with mobilego. Simple. It works, believe me, and you can move on and stop wasting time on this and save yourself a lot of pointless hassle. 

In summary:

# Backup

# Stock flash

# Update and root with mobilego

# Resume your life

Edited September 11, 2015 by macbreakweeklyfan

[Guest Nebril]

My phone is rooted and I've got FULL rw perms and have custom binaries in certain folders. The answer is as plain as the nose on your face - clean stock flash then update and THEN root (in that order) with mobilego. Simple. It works, believe me, and you can move on and stop wasting time on this and save yourself a lot of pointless hassle. 

In summary:

# Backup

# Stock flash

# Update and root with mobilego

# Resume your life

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NdN0DZDe4dQ

Totally not write protected at all...

[Guest Umrtvovacz]

My phone is rooted and I've got FULL rw perms and have custom binaries in certain folders. The answer is as plain as the nose on your face - clean stock flash then update and THEN root (in that order) with mobilego. Simple. It works, believe me, and you can move on and stop wasting time on this and save yourself a lot of pointless hassle. 

In summary:

# Backup

# Stock flash

# Update and root with mobilego

# Resume your life

I did that, except for the mobilego step. It's redundant, TWRP asks you whether you want to install SU after you flash a rom.

System is still R/O and stays R/O.

Edited September 12, 2015 by Umrtvovacz

[Guest Umrtvovacz]

Is it possible to make a flashable ROM with system already mounter as R/W? It's just a bunch of numbers changed. Is this possible?

[Guest Frankish]

It seems like it's the exact same situation as the ZTE ZMAX.

/system is write protected unless you are in recovery even if you are rooted on the device

That's wrong because I can write to system when fully booted.

[Guest elperroderoke]

I did that, except for the mobilego step. It's redundant, TWRP asks you whether you want to install SU after you flash a rom.

System is still R/O and stays R/O.

Then you didn't do that. I don't say it's gonna work, but don't say it didn't work if you are not doing the steps.

If you have TWRP is imposible go back to factory stock. Could be similar but not the same and lot of important files are missing (like bootloader).

Most of the times, say Yes when TWRP ask you to install SU doesn't work really. Is better flash the superSU-update.zip that you can download from chainfire instead.

Regards.

 

[Guest macbreakweeklyfan]

And this, my friends, is why many companies lock you out of the filesystem and make it hard for you to root; there are just too many things to do incorrectly, too many things to misunderstand, too many people who think they have the right to roam free inside a device, mess up the system and then go and claim it's "faulty" and expect support, knowing full well that they've messed it up themselves. 

How are the handset vendors supposed to discriminate between those who know what they're doing and the enthusiastic amateurs? Warranty VOID. You want support? Don't root and fiddle with things. The same applies for electronic warranty stickers - broken the sticker? Tough. Warranty VOID. Can you imagine the support nightmare of the company talking to someone who's rooted their phone by a tutorial and screwed it up? Wasted time and wages on the part of the support staff. 

 

[Guest KonstaT]

Erm, wasn't the current theory that there's different hardware revisions. First batch which can be rooted following the guides and newer(?) batch which is even more locked down has /system write protected like some other ZTE devices. There's also been reports of display differences between these revisions. There's already several threads about this on this forum and even people who have both versions. There's more to this than just some people 'doing it wrong'.

Well, good lesson for everyone in any case. Never get a device that doesn't have an unlocked/unlockable bootloader.

Edited September 12, 2015 by KonstaT

[Guest Unable]

I have the same problem.

If i reboot, I keep the root but system is write protected!

 

Damn it... Cant use Link2SD

[Guest Nebril]

Update: Using the same method as ZTE ZMAX you can have TWRP installed to boot and boot installed to recovery and it works just fine
I now have RW access to /system when booting from recovery and I can switch back fairly easily by flashing them back to their original spots

[Guest Umrtvovacz]

Update: Using the same method as ZTE ZMAX you can have TWRP installed to boot and boot installed to recovery and it works just fine
I now have RW access to /system when booting from recovery and I can switch back fairly easily by flashing them back to their original spots

Please can you explain?

[Guest Nebril]

Please can you explain?

You want to make a .img file of your boot partition first

dd if=/dev/block/bootdevice/by-name/boot of=/sdcard/boot.img

Then create your flashable zip by modifying updater-script found in TWRP (META-INF/com/google/android)

ui_print(" FLASHING BOOT.IMG TO RECOVERY PARTITION ");
package_extract_file("boot.img", "/dev/block/bootdevice/by-name/recovery");
ui_print(" FLASHING RECOVERY TO BOOT PARTITION ");
package_extract_file("recovery.img", "/dev/block/bootdevice/by-name/boot");
ui_print("DONE");

Then simply put your boot.img you created and put it into the TWRP zip so that you have both recovery.img and boot.img there

Done! That is your switcher zip that you flash when you want to modify /system files (You won't be able to boot by just holding the power button, you will have to boot into recovery by holding vol up + power)

To create a revert zip you simply copy the one you have just made and rename boot.img to recovery.img and recovery.img to boot.img

(I don't know if it's just my device but to revert back I need to flash the revert zip twice, once from boot (meaning I have two TWRP, one on boot and another on recovery) and the second from recovery)
 

Edited September 12, 2015 by Nebril

[Guest Umrtvovacz]

You want to make a .img file of your boot partition first

dd if=/dev/block/bootdevice/by-name/boot of=/sdcard/boot.img

Then create your flashable zip by modifying updater-script found in TWRP (META-INF/com/google/android)

ui_print(" FLASHING BOOT.IMG TO RECOVERY PARTITION ");
package_extract_file("boot.img", "/dev/block/bootdevice/by-name/recovery");
ui_print(" FLASHING RECOVERY TO BOOT PARTITION ");
package_extract_file("recovery.img", "/dev/block/bootdevice/by-name/boot");
ui_print("DONE");

Then simply put your boot.img you created and put it into the TWRP zip so that you have both recovery.img and boot.img there

Done! That is your switcher zip that you flash when you want to modify /system files (You won't be able to boot by just holding the power button, you will have to boot into recovery by holding vol up + power)

To create a revert zip you simple copy the one you have just made and rename boot.img to recovery.img and recovery.img to boot.img
 

What a smart and creative solution! Thanks a lot for all your work and effort. I will post my results.

Is it literary switching boot and recovery? If I understand correctly I can flash those zips (using terminal or some flash/zip manager) then boot up with power+vol.up like recovery and it will boot with ability to mount system R/W. I can do modifications then. Do I need to flash it back to normal (which will cause my system to be R/O again right? But the modifications stay) or can I have the phone with switched boot and recovery? I don't care if I have to boot up with power+vol.up.

Once again, thanks!