[Guide] All about BusyBox

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sgt. meow

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Dec 21, 2011
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I get the feeling that all users who have posted here are not necessarily from the X8 forums, which means busybox installation/availability in ROMs may be different than in X8 ROMs. @zebraapple
Installing busybox (the binary) is a part of the rooting process. And in that context "should have" means "every user ought to install" not "every phone comes with the binary pre-installed". ;)
 
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zebraapple

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May 5, 2013
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Installing busybox (the binary) is a part of the rooting process.
I used a pc utility to root my android without installing busybox, does it mean that rooting program installed the busybox binary as my phone was rooted? I didn't flash the rom though, I am quite happy to leave it running on 4.1.2. :D
 
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sgt. meow

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Dec 21, 2011
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Check in Terminal Emulator by typing busybox. It should display a few lines of info on what commands can be used and blah blah. Installing busybox should be a crucial part in the rooting process. At least it is for both the X8 and the Nexus 7.
 
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tltan86

Senior Member
Jun 30, 2011
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Custom rom came with busybox preinstalled. Will it be necessary to install busybox app from the market? Any advantages or disadvantages?

What I can think of the advantage is that you can update busybox with ease through the app?

Disadvantage will be a possible conflict of multiple version of busybox existed at the same time?
 

fotak-x

Senior Member
May 17, 2012
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Custom rom came with busybox preinstalled. Will it be necessary to install busybox app from the market? Any advantages or disadvantages?

What I can think of the advantage is that you can update busybox with ease through the app?

Disadvantage will be a possible conflict of multiple version of busybox existed at the same time?

Its not necessary to update busybox at all, but if youre running same rom for like a year or then you should do it possibly with an app because
you have smaller chances of softbricks, bootloops etc.
i dont think that its possible to conflict two bbox versions...so there are no disadvantages :D
 

tltan86

Senior Member
Jun 30, 2011
224
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Its not necessary to update busybox at all, but if youre running same rom for like a year or then you should do it possibly with an app because
you have smaller chances of softbricks, bootloops etc.
i dont think that its possible to conflict two bbox versions...so there are no disadvantages :D

I see... Thank you @fotak-x for the enlightenment! :good:
 

hexygurl

New member
Apr 27, 2014
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htc one s

Is this compatible with htc one s? I have tried to install 1.22.1 and 1.22.2. Both do not install. I get an error that says to try another version.
 

gkapou

Member
Jun 1, 2014
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busybox on samsung

I have bricked, debricked and rebricked my phone and it has busybox included in Philz_Touch recovery,
however I cannot find nc which I need it to copy raw partition to my PC - linux win box for backup.
Does someone have anyidea where I can find the version with the
applet nc?
and how to install ti in the rrecovery?

thanks in advance for the replies

Regarding what to do with busybox after rooting depends on your knowledge of
unix comamnds, if you are not familiar with command line in unix
you cannot use it, it will be used automatically by other applications.
 

maja_ldm

Member
Aug 6, 2014
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I'm a noob but I don't want to use the instller app (just had a softbrick recovering from the mess left by one of those)

I followed the steps allright, but installing buybox gave a lot of output lines with the likes of /usr/bin: file not found.

If I try to enter `busybox` from terminal I have the expected output.. is it all right this way?
 

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    BusyBox


    BusyBox info

    Owner Erik Andersen

    BusyBox is maintained by developer Denys Vlasenko

    It's licensed under the GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE version 2 (GNU GPLv2)

    5 December 1999 one of the oldest BusyBox version was relesed (0.38)

    Newest version BusyBox 1.21.0 (21.1.2013)


    What is BusyBox

    Busybox is set of programs which allow users to have Unix/Linux utilities in single small executable file,

    busybox multi-platform and it is made for linux based operating systems (Androd,FreeBSD...), to install busybox you must use linux kernel 2.4.*

    You can find BusyBox in not only android devices but also in internet modems,wirles acces points...etc

    Supported architectures are ARM, CRIS, H8/300, x86, ia64, x86_64, m68k, MIPS, PowerPC, S390, SH3/4/5, Sparc, v850e,


    Usage

    BusyBox directory /system/xbin or /system/bin folder

    But you dont have to execute cd /system/xbin to start using busybox,just type command that you like (Works only if busybox is symlinked)


    Installation through ADB


    Requirements
    • Rooted device
    • ADB
    • USB debugging enabled

    1.Place busybox binary in root of ADB folder on your PC

    2.Start ADB and connect your device with PC (USB)
    Code:
    adb push busybox /data/local/busybox
    
    adb shell
    
    su
    
    cd /data/local
    
    chmod 755 busybox
    
    ./busybox
    
    /data/local/busybox cp /data/local/busybox /system/xbin
    
    /data/local/busybox cp /data/local/busybox /system/bin
    
    cd /system/xbin
    
    busybox --install .
    
    reboot

    Or install app from market,and install busybox Click here if you are noob


    Commands

    To see commands on your device type "busybox" in terminal emulator

    Syntax

    Code:
    busybox <applet> [arguments]

    Input:

    Code:
    busybox

    Output:

    Code:
    [SIZE="1"][, [[, acpid, addgroup, adduser, adjtimex, ar, arp, arping, ash,
            awk, basename, beep, blkid, brctl, bunzip2, bzcat, bzip2, cal, cat,
            catv, chat, chattr, chgrp, chmod, chown, chpasswd, chpst, chroot,
            chrt, chvt, cksum, clear, cmp, comm, cp, cpio, crond, crontab,
            cryptpw, cut, date, dc, dd, deallocvt, delgroup, deluser, depmod,
            devmem, df, dhcprelay, diff, dirname, dmesg, dnsd, dnsdomainname,
            dos2unix, dpkg, du, dumpkmap, dumpleases, echo, ed, egrep, eject,
            env, envdir, envuidgid, expand, expr, fakeidentd, false, fbset,
            fbsplash, fdflush, fdformat, fdisk, fgrep, find, findfs, flash_lock,
            flash_unlock, fold, free, freeramdisk, fsck, fsck.minix, fsync,
            ftpd, ftpget, ftpput, fuser, getopt, getty, grep, gunzip, gzip, hd,
            hdparm, head, hexdump, hostid, hostname, httpd, hush, hwclock, id,
            ifconfig, ifdown, ifenslave, ifplugd, ifup, inetd, init, inotifyd,
            insmod, install, ionice, ip, ipaddr, ipcalc, ipcrm, ipcs, iplink,
            iproute, iprule, iptunnel, kbd_mode, kill, killall, killall5, klogd,
            last, length, less, linux32, linux64, linuxrc, ln, loadfont,
            loadkmap, logger, login, logname, logread, losetup, lpd, lpq, lpr,
            ls, lsattr, lsmod, lzmacat, lzop, lzopcat, makemime, man, md5sum,
            mdev, mesg, microcom, mkdir, mkdosfs, mkfifo, mkfs.minix, mkfs.vfat,
            mknod, mkpasswd, mkswap, mktemp, modprobe, more, mount, mountpoint,
            mt, mv, nameif, nc, netstat, nice, nmeter, nohup, nslookup, od,
            openvt, passwd, patch, pgrep, pidof, ping, ping6, pipe_progress,
            pivot_root, pkill, popmaildir, printenv, printf, ps, pscan, pwd,
            raidautorun, rdate, rdev, readlink, readprofile, realpath,
            reformime, renice, reset, resize, rm, rmdir, rmmod, route, rpm,
            rpm2cpio, rtcwake, run-parts, runlevel, runsv, runsvdir, rx, script,
            scriptreplay, sed, sendmail, seq, setarch, setconsole, setfont,
            setkeycodes, setlogcons, setsid, setuidgid, sh, sha1sum, sha256sum,
            sha512sum, showkey, slattach, sleep, softlimit, sort, split,
            start-stop-daemon, stat, strings, stty, su, sulogin, sum, sv,
            svlogd, swapoff, swapon, switch_root, sync, sysctl, syslogd, tac,
            tail, tar, taskset, tcpsvd, tee, telnet, telnetd, test, tftp, tftpd,
            time, timeout, top, touch, tr, traceroute, true, tty, ttysize,
            udhcpc, udhcpd, udpsvd, umount, uname, uncompress, unexpand, uniq,
            unix2dos, unlzma, unlzop, unzip, uptime, usleep, uudecode, uuencode,
            vconfig, vi, vlock, volname, watch, watchdog, wc, wget, which, who,
            whoami, xargs, yes, zcat, zcip[/SIZE]


    BusyBox emulator in web browser

    Need some time to load but its good for learning

    --->HERE<---


    Screenshot
    fotak-x 2013
    busybox_screenshot.png




    Thank me if this was usefull and if you like you can donate to me ;)

    DO NOT copy/paste this guide to other forums without permission
    and if you want to paste this guide to other website...dont even ask for permission because answer is NO

    2
    Seriously, what does busybox do? What does it do to help running apps in a rooted android phone?

    Many thanks.

    It contains Linux level commands like su,chmod,insmod, etc....located in system /bin....
    These commands are used by roms & apps (background processing);)

    Sent from my E15i using Tapatalk 2
    1
    Nice.

    Sent from my E15i using Tapatalk 2
    1
    Check in Terminal Emulator by typing busybox. It should display a few lines of info on what commands can be used and blah blah. Installing busybox should be a crucial part in the rooting process. At least it is for both the X8 and the Nexus 7.