Program that mimics ‘strings’ from Linux.
As you can tell, I’m personally using a Windows machine, so instead I’ve been using a ‘strings’ is a linux command, the documentation for which isĪvailable here. Of available fastboot oem commands, then you’ll need to print a list of strings from the aboot.img and search for the oem commands manually. If there isn’t any command that prints a list Now, if your device manufacturer was kind enough to provide a fastboot command that lists all oem commands (try fastboot oem ? and see if that works), then you won’t need to do anything further.
These commands are specific to Android device manufacturers, and there is no comprehensive list or documentation anywhere for what fastboot oem commands are available. What’s missing in this list are fastboot oem commands. Here is a list of the fastboot commands available on every device with a bootloader based off of the latest AOSP code: Or fastboot boot. There are many more fastboot commands as defined in the You might be familiar with some of the more common fastboot commands, such as fastboot flash Now that we’ve dumped the bootloader, we need to examine it to determine what hidden commands we can find.
Once successful, you should find a file called ‘ aboot.img‘ located on the root of your internal storage. We will reference it in the following command to dump the bootloader: dd if=/dev/block/ of=/sdcard/aboot.img This will vary depending on your device, so it’s important that you follow these instructions to figure out the true directory where your bootloader is located. In my case, the bootloader, which is ‘aboot’ in the above image,Ĭan be found at /dev/block/mmcblk0p10. These partitions are sorted by name, so we can easily discern the location of our bootloader partition. You can see above, a giant list of partition directories are printed out. You will need to enter two commands as follows: cd /dev/block/bootdevice/by-name In order to find the exact directory, we will print out a list of all of the partitions and their directories by name, and look for one in particular called ‘ aboot.’ Next, we will figure out the exact location of your device’s bootloader image. The symbol in front of your device’s codename should change from $ to # indicating that you can now run commands with elevated privileges. Now, in order to access the partitions we need to dump,
If you see the command prompt change from displaying the ADB binary directory to showing the codename for your Android device, then you’ve successfully entered your device’s local command line shell. The first command you should run in your command prompt is: adb shell It’s best that we run commands over ADB because we’re much more prone to making mistakes when typing on a virtual keyboard, and making mistakes is not something you want toĭo here. Our first step is to open a shell on our device so we can run commands over ADB.
If you see your device’s serial number pop up, then you’ve got the right drivers. How do you know if you’re good to go? Plug in your device, enable USB Debugging under Developer Settings, open up a command prompt, and type: adb devices
As for the drivers, you can grab the necessary drivers for Google Nexus devices Another prerequisite you will need to meet is ensuring that your computer has all of the proper ADB/fastboot drivers. Purposes, but you will not be able to perform any of the necessary commands. If you do not have root access, you can continue reading this guide for educational In order to extract your device’s bootloader, you will need root access on your phone. Make sure you have an off-device backup ready!īefore we get started, there’s one really, really important thing to note. But, we are still messing around with our device partitions and the bootloader, so there is no telling what could happen Let’s get started.ĭisclaimer: So long as you know what you’re doing and can follow instructions appropriately, nothing bad should happen to your device. Help you in any real situation, but nevertheless it’s pretty interesting to dive this deep into your phone’s settings.
However, what commands you will have access to will vary significantly between devices. Nexus 6P, is most definitely replicable on the majority of smartphones. To make up for it, I’m going to walk you through something far, far more advanced and exciting: dumping your device’s bootloader to discover hidden fastboot commands.
Now, I realize that some of you were disappointed in the fact that your smartphone was not covered in the previous article, and I apologize for that. Hidden hardware diagnostic tool on certain smartphones.
More recently, I’ve shown you how to access the Hidden menus on your device by sifting through all of the hidden application activities on your phone. In my quest to discover as much about Android customization as I possibly could, I’ve made many obscure, yet interesting discoveries.