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Root access

Revision as of 21:59, 11 December 2009

Warning: The steps described on this page could lead to severe damage to your system and/or device. Proceed at your own peril. It is likely that any breakage would be fixed by reflashing your device: however this will lose any settings not backed up.

Having root access is an important step for users interested in modifying things "under the covers" of their tablets; without it, you won't have the necessary permissions to make those modifications. Root access is disabled by default on new tablets. Thankfully, the steps to enable root access are simple.

Why do I want root?

Root access is not required to install additional applications through Application Manager, open X Terminal or use your tablet in day-to-day operation.

If you want to edit the underlying system configuration, install applications through the command line or other low-level tasks, you will require root access.

rootsh

Note: As rootsh is the simplest option, and does not require a desktop computer or running additional services, it is the recommended method for gaining root access.

rootsh is available in Extras, and can be installed from the Application manager if you have Extras enabled.

Then, from the shell, run sudo gainroot (or root for short). This will give you a root shell.

sudser

Note: Some scripts require rootsh to run properly, so it's recommended to have both suders and rootsh installed if you're using sudser.

sudser adds the user to sudoers so you can use the sudo command to run commands as root. It is available in Extras, and can be installed from the Application manager if you have Extras enabled.

Then, from the shell, run sudo command. This will execute command with root privileges.

OpenSSH

1. Enable Extras (if you haven't already).
2. Install OpenSSH (client and server).
   • This will prompt you to change the root password from the default, rootme.
3. SSH into your tablet as root
   • For local access, run ssh root@localhost
   • For remote access, run ssh root@tablet's ip address
4. Use the root password entered at step (2) to log in.

To debug issues with SSH connections, use the SSH '-v' option.

(To get SSH X forwarding ('-X' option) to work, you need to install xauth (or xbase-clients) package and enable X forwarding in the SSH server configuration file on the machine where you're connecting to.)

R&D Mode

Note: As R&D mode has other side effects beyond simply enabling root access (including several that may negatively impact battery life), it is not the recommended method for gaining root access. Use rootsh instead.

You can enable the Research & Development mode (R&D or RD mode, which enables you to execute sudo gainroot to get a root shell, simply follow the setup steps for flashing covered in updating the tablet firmware, then execute

sudo ./flasher-3.5 --enable-rd-mode -R

You are now in R&D mode, and the sudo gainroot script's check will be satisfied.

See also the R&D mode article.