Quote:
Instead of executing these four commands, you can download the batch file getlog.cmd and extract it from the zip file to the folder containing adb.exe. Once you type in the following command (from anywhere in Windows), you will achieve the same result as typing the four commands as above! Ingenious, eh?
/Quote:
Not sure about getting a logcat.
I have d/led getlog.cmd and placed it in the same folder as adb.exe
Now what?
I tried typing in adb logcat and got all the info in the cmd window but how do you get it to a txt file? Also tried the four commands but kept getting an error at the echo line.
Sorry very new to adb.
Edit: I created a txt file called log.txt in the same folder as adb.exe and clicked on getlog.cmd and I think it worked. Anyone tell me if this is correct.
Instead of executing these four commands, you can download the batch file getlog.cmd and extract it from the zip file to the folder containing adb.exe. Once you type in the following command (from anywhere in Windows), you will achieve the same result as typing the four commands as above! Ingenious, eh?
/Quote:
Not sure about getting a logcat.
I have d/led getlog.cmd and placed it in the same folder as adb.exe
Now what?
I tried typing in adb logcat and got all the info in the cmd window but how do you get it to a txt file? Also tried the four commands but kept getting an error at the echo line.
Sorry very new to adb.
Edit: I created a txt file called log.txt in the same folder as adb.exe and clicked on getlog.cmd and I think it worked. Anyone tell me if this is correct.
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Sorry about all the screenshots disappearing. They're hosted on my server which has experienced a power outage and data corruption. Hopefully it'll be fixed in a couple of days.
Great tutorial, prior to reading this I had no idea about how to use ADB, but now I can get around reasonably well... I don't even have a Desire, or even a HTC phone yet, but I learnt on my Transformer, and it works great! My first step to becoming an Android dev I guess 
might even consider cooking a ROM soon.
tno~~
might even consider cooking a ROM soon.tno~~
How to get Kernel error messages
Added another one to OP
You can get debug messages from a running kernel with:
If you have reboots due to kernel panic, you should make users capture the last_kmsg log from /proc immediately on the reboot.
Should be done immediately after the reboot..Otherwise it will just get overwritten by newer kernel message.
So in brief, if you'd like to look at what the kernel is doing right now (any errors etc), you should use dmesg. If you want to know why your kernel rebooted, use the file proc/last_kmsg
It's extremely useful!
Added another one to OP
You can get debug messages from a running kernel with:
Code:
adb shell
dmesgIf you have reboots due to kernel panic, you should make users capture the last_kmsg log from /proc immediately on the reboot.
Code:
adb shell
cat /proc/last_kmsg > /sdcard/last_kmsgSo in brief, if you'd like to look at what the kernel is doing right now (any errors etc), you should use dmesg. If you want to know why your kernel rebooted, use the file proc/last_kmsg
It's extremely useful!
Problem - adb logcat > log.txt
Droidzone thanks for your fantasic newb guide.
I am looking at your guide to learn and get a better understanding of what went wrong with my phone the other day (all is Ok now) when I had to use Fastboot for my phone to be recognised again by pc/phone, of which i was/am clueless at what i did.
I had already installed ADB SDK files/tools a while ago in case i have a USB brick on my desire.........
I have done 'adb install' and dragged apk file to cmd which was a success but not having any luck with 'adb logcat > log.txt. Curser just hangs for about 5 mins then goes back to cmd prompt.
I have looked at post 25 (john-au) and i do not know what he did.
Regards
fs1
Droidzone thanks for your fantasic newb guide.
I am looking at your guide to learn and get a better understanding of what went wrong with my phone the other day (all is Ok now) when I had to use Fastboot for my phone to be recognised again by pc/phone, of which i was/am clueless at what i did.
I had already installed ADB SDK files/tools a while ago in case i have a USB brick on my desire.........
I have done 'adb install' and dragged apk file to cmd which was a success but not having any luck with 'adb logcat > log.txt. Curser just hangs for about 5 mins then goes back to cmd prompt.
I have looked at post 25 (john-au) and i do not know what he did.
Regards
fs1
Thanks for quick reply.
I have created a log.txt file and put it in adb exe folder.
Typed in cmd >adb logcat > log.txt hit enter and get
-waiting for device-
What an i doing wrong?
EDIT: Did a file search and it was not in folder with adb.exe but in c:\users\myname.
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The path is used for executables. Unless specified otherwise, log.txt is created in wherever your current directory is.
Sent from my HTC Desire using Tapatalk
Sent from my HTC Desire using Tapatalk
thank you for this guide, i have been learning a lot quickly using this. saved me multiple times.
Who's begging for thanks? Thanks is just an indicator of how many people found a post useful. Hit the button or not, I couldn't care less. Much better than begging for thanks in ones signature, or begging for money any day.
Swyped on my Htc Desire running on Supernova Extreme - Gingerbread goodness with 2 GB of Internal memory
Swyped on my Htc Desire running on Supernova Extreme - Gingerbread goodness with 2 GB of Internal memory
thank you for this guide, i have been learning a lot quickly using this. saved me multiple times.
There's a lot more about adb to explain. There are advanced filters you can set, and commands to make the phone obey instructions like open an app, click a button etc. Will add more when I have time.
Swyped on my Htc Desire running on Supernova Extreme - Gingerbread goodness with 2 GB of Internal memory
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121TUTORIAL - EVERYTHING ABOUT ADB - Fully Illustrated
This will be part of a series of Tutorials compiled to better educate the Beginner-Intermediate users in XDA thread, and help them get rid of the "n00b" or "newbie" tag thrown at them!
1. WHAT IS ADB?
ADB or Android Debug Bridge is a command line program which is used to communicate with your Android phone (or an emulator used by programmers). The use of Adb for Android phone users ranges from using it as a tool to get the logcat- A realtime log of the Android system, which allows one to know the cause of any errors. It is very helpful to app hackers to know exctly what block of code does what, and to modify apps accordingly
2. HOW TO USE ADB - Running adb.exe
adb.exe is part of a package of tools called Android SDK or Software Development Kit. For users, the main applications useful for them are adb.exe, fastboot.exe and aapt.exe.
2.1 Installing adb.exe (Windows)
- First, download the Android SDK package(exe file) from here The installer will prompt you to download and install the JDK (Java Development Kit) if you dont have it already installed
- Next install the exe file and note the location where you install it to.
- After install is over, use Windows explorer and navigate to the folder where you installed the SDK.
- Double-click the SDK Manager.exe/SDK Setup.exe file at the root of the Android SDK directory.
- This will open up the SDK Installation window, where you can choose from a list of packages to install
- If you want to use only adb.exe and fastboot.exe, choose to install only the "Android SDK Tools" from the list (See fig 1 below)
- That's it, adb.exe is now installed
Fig1:
Take a note of where you install it. It usually installs to a folder named Android-sdk-windows. Once you have it installed, you can copy the entire folder on a portable usb key/CD and use it on any other PC without a need to install it. I recommend that you make it a part of your Android CD (with rooting tools, unrooting tools, gold card etc).
2.2 Using adb.exe-Preparing your PC for running adb.exe quickly
Adding Adb to your Windows Path
Once installed, you should add the location of adb.exe to the* Windows Environment Path variable. To do that, go the subfolder of Android-sdk-windows where adb.exe can be found. Click on the Windows Explorer path displayed on Top, and copy the path to the Clipboard
Go to Start Menu, and Right click Computer, Choose Properties
Choose Advanced System Settings and then Environment variables
Now, add the Location you copied to the Clipboard earlier, to the end of the current path, after adding a ";"(without the quotes) to the end of the current path.
So, in my case, the current path shows:
c:\droidzone\windows; c:\droidzone\blahblah
It now becomes:
c:\droidzone\windows; c:\droidzone\blahblah;C:\Software\Phone\android-sdk-windows\tools
Hit Enter to everything.
From now, whenever you open a Command prompt in Windows, you will be able to execute Adb and Fastboot from there without needing to navigate to the folder where they are installed.
Next step: Elementary Adb commands
Don't forget to Hit the Thanks button to let me know that my posts helped you!110Elementary Adb commands
Ok, now that you've got adb all setup and prepared your computer to use it, you're ready to learn some basic adb commands. I'll be teaching some of them in this section.
Understanding how adb and the shell works
Let's first check if adb is working by asking it to communicate with our phone. Connect the phone with a usb cable to the PC. Note that you should have installed the HTC drivers already (They come with HTC Sync)
From your Windows Start Menu, Click on Run, then type the following and press enter. That should open a command shell:
Code:cmd
Once there, type out the following:
This will display a list showing the connected phones with their serial numbers (and emulators-But let us not worry about what these are, right now)Code:adb devices
Great, now we have confirmation that adb is working! We're now ready to issue our basic commands.
First thing to note is the basic command to enter the Android custom linux shell. Like Windows has cmd.exe to enter the dos shell, the graphical eyecandy with Sense overlay that you see on your device has a custom linux kernel running, so basically the language of its shell is the Linux shell language.
Accessing the Linux terminal (adb shell) is what we do to issue commands. To enter the shell of our device, the basic command is:
Immediately, you will get a prompt like this:Code:adb shell
Now we can type out any (most) linux commands and these will be executed in our device.Code:sh-3.2#
The file system on Android is laid out over MTD partitions in your device's NAND (Internal memory), and the SD card. The Nand is strictly organized in a Linux system with Linux file permissions and ownership rights (Just know that these exist, for now)
So, right now, you will be dropped in the "root" of the filesystem, from where you can navigate to other places.
My tutorial is about adb commands, and not linux, so I'll give only a short summary of elementary linux commands below. I will expand the list and explanation for this at a later date if you require it:
Elementary Adb commands
Installing applications with adb
You can install any apk from your PC to the phone very easily. Open a cmd shell, and then type in:
followed by a space. Now drag an apk file in Windows explorer to the shell we have opened. Immediately, the path of the file becomes inserted in our prompt that it becomes:Code:adb install
assuming that the file TitaniumBackup.apk was present in the location C:\Desktop. Hit enter and you will notice that it gets installed.Code:adb install C:\Desktop\TitaniumBackup.apk
Transferring files to the sdcard without connecting the device as Disk drive:
will trasfer the file C:\Desktop\TitaniumBackup.apk to the root (main) directory of your sdcard. Likewise, you can transfer any file from the PC to any location on your device.Code:adb push C:\Desktop\TitaniumBackup.apk /sdcard/
Eg: I want to transfer a file called wallpaper.zip to a location /data/local. The command would be:
Contd..Code:adb push C:\Desktop\wallpaper.zip /data/local/
Don't forget to Hit the Thanks button to let me know that my posts helped you!56Getting an adb logcat
Many a time, you might have heard people telling you to get a logcat to report your error with a Rom installation.
What is a logcat?
A logcat is a report from the Android logging system, which takes place in the background the whole time your phone is on. It starts the moment you switch on the phone, and continues till you shut it down completely. This log is extremely useful for finding out what went wrong with your system. It is useful to find out why your phone is having bootloops or force closes. It is infact useful for all errors!
How to get the logcat?
Basically, you can view the logcat log with the following command:
But that means getting overwhelmed by an endless haze of output flowing at a rate that you cant read and will overwhelm your command shell's capacity very soon.Code:adb logcat
So the system we normally use is to output the log to a file from which we can read later. This is done by the following command:
My TechniqueCode:adb logcat > log.txt
As a Rom developer and apk patcher, I have to constantly check for errors in my system. So I've devised an ingenous method to easily log logcat, and view them readily. I use a combo of commands executed in succession:
These commands essentially create a blank file named log.txt in the same path as the command shell you've opened. Then, it opens the file log.txt (which is blank at this point of time. Then it logs logcat output to that file. Once you refresh the opened file, it will show the output of logcat to this point of time. Refresh it once again, and it updates once more. You should install Notepad++ and associate .txt files with it, to get best results.Code:adb kill-server echo "" > log.txt start log.txt adb logcat > log.txt
Instead of executing these four commands, you can download the batch file getlog.cmd and extract it from the zip file to the folder containing adb.exe. Once you type in the following command (from anywhere in Windows), you will achieve the same result as typing the four commands as above! Ingenious, eh?
Don't forget to Hit the Thanks button to let me know that my posts helped you!
53More elementary adb commands:
Getting a file from your phone to your PC:
To get a file /system/etc/init.d/01data to your PC, you would type out the following:
which will transfer the spcified file to the location on your pc where you have opened the cmd.exe shell.Code:adb pull /system/etc/init.d/01data
Mounting the system partition as Read Write to transfer files to your /system partition:
Method 1:
Method 2:Code:adb remount
This can also be accomplished with the more advanced mount command in the adb shell. First we need to know the mount point of the partitions.
Type:For me, it displays:Code:adb shell mount
Note that the entry for system partition shows:Code:rootfs / rootfs rw,relatime 0 0 tmpfs /dev tmpfs rw,relatime,mode=755 0 0 devpts /dev/pts devpts rw,relatime,mode=600 0 0 proc /proc proc rw,relatime 0 0 sysfs /sys sysfs rw,relatime 0 0 /sys/kernel/debug /sys/kernel/debug debugfs rw,relatime 0 0 none /acct cgroup rw,relatime,cpuacct 0 0 tmpfs /mnt/asec tmpfs rw,relatime,mode=755,gid=1000 0 0 tmpfs /mnt/obb tmpfs rw,relatime,mode=755,gid=1000 0 0 tmpfs /app-cache tmpfs rw,relatime,size=8192k,mode=755,gid=1000 0 0 none /dev/cpuctl cgroup rw,relatime,cpu 0 0 [B]/dev/block/mtdblock3 /system yaffs2 ro,relatime 0 0[/B] /dev/block/mtdblock4 /cache yaffs2 rw,nosuid,nodev,relatime 0 0 /dev/block/mtdblock5 /system/data yaffs2 rw,nosuid,nodev,noatime,nodiratime 0 0 /dev/block/mmcblk0p2 /data ext4 rw,nosuid,nodev,noatime,nodiratime,commit=50,bar rier=0,stripe=64,data=ordered,noauto_da_alloc 0 0 /dev/block/vold/179:1 /mnt/sdcard vfat rw,dirsync,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,u id=1000,gid=1015,fmask=0702,dmask=0702,allow_utime=0020,codepage=cp437,iocharset =iso8859-1,shortname=mixed,utf8,errors=remount-ro 0 0 /dev/block/vold/179:1 /mnt/secure/asec vfat rw,dirsync,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relat ime,uid=1000,gid=1015,fmask=0702,dmask=0702,allow_utime=0020,codepage=cp437,ioch arset=iso8859-1,shortname=mixed,utf8,errors=remount-ro 0 0 tmpfs /mnt/sdcard/.android_secure tmpfs ro,relatime,size=0k,mode=000 0 0 sh-3.2#
/dev/block/mtdblock3 /system yaffs2 ro,relatime 0 0
The ro means that /system is mounted as RO-i.e Read Only. The whole line means that the Nand MTD block device on /dev/block/mtdblock3 is mounted on the mount point /system, to use technical jargon.
We need to mount it as RW (Read Write)
The command is:
This essentially mounts the /system as Read Write so that you can write to it (Normally you cant write to the /system partition), which is what "adb remount " also does. However the commands above can be executed from a Terminal Emulator application too.Code:mount -o rw,remount /dev/block/mtdblock3 /system
Next: Getting an Adb logcat
Don't forget to Hit the Thanks button to let me know that my posts helped you!35Summary of other adb commands
The following is the partial list of commands supported by adb. You can obtain this list by the following command:
Code:adb /?I will add notes for these if you require them.Code:C:\Users>adb /? Android Debug Bridge version 1.0.26 -d - directs command to the only connected USB devic e returns an error if more than one USB device is present. -e - directs command to the only running emulator. returns an error if more than one emulator is r unning. -s <serial number> - directs command to the USB device or emulator w ith the given serial number. Overrides ANDROID_SERI AL environment variable. -p <product name or path> - simple product name like 'sooner', or a relative/absolute path to a product out directory like 'out/target/product/sooner'. If -p is not specified, the ANDROID_PRODUCT_OUT environment variable is used, which must be an absolute path. devices - list all connected devices connect <host>:<port> - connect to a device via TCP/IP disconnect <host>:<port> - disconnect from a TCP/IP device device commands: adb push <local> <remote> - copy file/dir to device adb pull <remote> [<local>] - copy file/dir from device adb sync [ <directory> ] - copy host->device only if changed (see 'adb help all') adb shell - run remote shell interactively adb shell <command> - run remote shell command adb emu <command> - run emulator console command adb logcat [ <filter-spec> ] - View device log adb forward <local> <remote> - forward socket connections forward specs are one of: tcp:<port> localabstract:<unix domain socket name> localreserved:<unix domain socket name> localfilesystem:<unix domain socket name> dev:<character device name> jdwp:<process pid> (remote only) adb jdwp - list PIDs of processes hosting a JDWP transport adb install [-l] [-r] [-s] <file> - push this package file to the device and i nstall it ('-l' means forward-lock the app) ('-r' means reinstall the app, keeping its data ) ('-s' means install on SD card instead of inter nal storage) adb uninstall [-k] <package> - remove this app package from the device ('-k' means keep the data and cache directories ) adb bugreport - return all information from the device that should be included in a bug report. adb help - show this help message adb version - show version num DATAOPTS: (no option) - don't touch the data partition -w - wipe the data partition -d - flash the data partition scripting: adb wait-for-device - block until device is online adb start-server - ensure that there is a server running adb kill-server - kill the server if it is running adb get-state - prints: offline | bootloader | device adb get-serialno - prints: <serial-number> adb status-window - continuously print device status for a specifie d device adb remount - remounts the /system partition on the device re ad-write adb reboot [bootloader|recovery] - reboots the device, optionally into the boo tloader or recovery program adb reboot-bootloader - reboots the device into the bootloader adb root - restarts the adbd daemon with root permissions adb usb - restarts the adbd daemon listening on USB adb tcpip <port> - restarts the adbd daemon listening on TCP on th e specified port networking: adb ppp <tty> [parameters] - Run PPP over USB. Note: you should not automatically start a PPP connection. <tty> refers to the tty for PPP stream. Eg. dev:/dev/omap_csmi_tty1 [parameters] - Eg. defaultroute debug dump local notty usepeerdns adb sync notes: adb sync [ <directory> ] <localdir> can be interpreted in several ways: - If <directory> is not specified, both /system and /data partitions will be u pdated. - If it is "system" or "data", only the corresponding partition is updated.
