[APP] ADB enhanced Putty (replacement for "adb shell" command)

We all know that running "adb shell" from the command line is pretty crap, and when using a latter busybox version which has coloring support it's ultimately crap. One workaround was usually to start a telnet server on the phone, and use putty to connect to that telnet server. Actually there is a more easier way to do that which also works for non rooted phones.

Actually the Android Debug Bridge has a terminal connection feature (roughly speaking), which will be enabled after you connect to the adb server in "0006shell:" mode. You can actually use the putty to connect to this interface always, by setting the following things:
- Turn off line discipline in settings
- Use RAW mode to connect to localhost:5037
- Enter "0012host:transport-usb" (without quotes)
- Enter "0006shell:" (without quotes)

Now you've got a full fledged connection to your device. The main drawback is that it's tedious to repeat the above all the time, so I've made some modifications to the putty binary that adds a new type of connection, called "Adb"

To use the enhanced putty (via USB):
- Select Adb from the connection type list
- Enter "transport-usb" in the host (or any other connection string, check the adb socket interface documentation if you need something else than connecting via usb)
- Enter 5037 as port, if it's not already set there.
- Connect and enjoy (you might also save this connection, so next time you only have to double-click on the settings)

To use this via wireless adb:
- Connect to wireless adb using a command shell: "adb connect IPORT" (substitute ip and port for the real values)
- Enter "transport-any" in the host
- Enter 5037 as port if it's not already set there
- Connect and enjoy

To use this via the android emulator:
- Enter "transport-local" in the host. Everything else is the same

If you have multiple devices (for example multiple devices connected to usb and/or wileressly)
- Enter "transport:serial-number" in the host, where you substitute "serial-number" with the serial of the device you get by using "adb devices". Everything else is the same.

DL and source: http://github.com/sztupy/adbputty/downloads

ykk_five said:

i am using putty for a long time, and i just tried urs, it looks great but i failed to connect coz i'm connecting to 2 devices....

so how can i add the -s param to specify which phone i'm gonna connect?

thx


EDIT: wow!!! i removed one of my devices and connected to it now!! ctrl-U now works!!!! THANK YOU!!!

EDIT2: quick question. if i use a normal putty, where to type in 0012transport-usb and 0006shell: ? i typed them in the term but it closed after 0006shell

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The complete specification is here: http://android.git.kernel.org/?p=pl...T;hb=f41986bbc79055a4feed7266cac5c1b540296daf

This is what you can use:
- transport-any (either usb or local emulator)
- transport-usb (the only usb device)
- transport-local (the only emulator)
- transport:SERIALNUMBER (the concrete device with the appropriate serial number)

so in your case you have to use the latter.


For the second question, you need to ensure that all of the things are present:
- You are using RAW mode (connecting to localhost:5037)
- Line discipline is on "Force OFF" (in the terminal settings dialog)
- You make some pause between writing the two commands
- You don't press enter/backspace or any other key while entering the commands (the easiest way is to write the commands in eg. notepad, copy them, and paste them into putty by pressing ****+RIGHT MOUSE BUTTON)

hardcore said:

Thanks. It works, but any idea how to get the up and down arrow keys to work on Putty? They work on the windows adb shell.

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The up and down arrow keys were actually handled by cmd.exe, which is non existent in putty. Instead it's now the responsibility of the shell to do the hard work. The included sh in the phone's sotfware (toolbox sh) is mostly useless here, but if you have busybox installed, you might want to run "busybox sh" after connecting (some rooted phones have busybox's sh as default, on them it should work out of the box).

Busybox's sh can not only handle the up and down arrows, but other things like tab completion works too.

jodue said:

seems to be a windows/putty problem because adb shell works wonderful on ubuntu with the default shell ...

btw. you can also easily get a sshd (dropbear) running. then you can ssh onto the device over wifi ... i can provide the binary+explanation if anybody is interested.

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You seem to miss the point of this development. First, your method is mentioned as one of the possible workarounds in the first post. Second you need to have some kind of telnet/ssh server running on the phone, which you don't need, if using adb.

Meanwhile you don't even need a rooted phone or busybox or anything to get this thing working.

The main problem with adb shell under windows, that it uses the standard cmd.exe to run, and uses the standard cmd.exe's "readline" support, which only supports the up and down keys for history (and even that it only supports that within one session).

Putty is mainly the only good (xterm compatible) terminal emulator for windows (msys's or cygwin's rxvt is good too, but "adb shell" was programmed in a way that makes it kinda useless under rxvt too). There are two ways to fix this. One is to make adb.exe more comptible with rxvt, the other is to skip adb.exe entirelly and communicate with the adb server without it. This project utilises the latter.

DirkStorck said:

But what is the advantage compared to "normal" ABD

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It has a real xterm compatible terminal emulator. Is you use busybox >= 1.17.1 you've got coloring, tab completion, resize events, keyboard events (applicatios like vi is working), etc.