(how to) adb for noobs, by a noob

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tombepa

Senior Member
Jul 14, 2010
562
72
This instructional piece is brought to you by a complete noob. Please be aware that this is simply telling how I got ADB to work on LinuxMint 10 Julia. Some of the steps may be unnecessary but since I am a noob, I took bits and pieces of info and advice to finally accomplish my mission. The main reason I am writing this is because a lot of the tutorials I found are not written for people new to Linux like myself and I found myself confused by simple instructions because I was unfamiliar with some basic terminal commands.

The first thing I did is watch this video on youtube.com. The instructions I am about to give for installing the SDK comes from here.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8UREMU-wSU

This video walked me through step by step how to install the Android SDK in Ubuntu. Since LinuxMint is a derivative of Ubuntu, it worked perfectly.

The first thing to do is go to this link and download the SDK for Linux.
http://developer.android.com/sdk/index.html

Then move the file to your home folder. Open a terminal and first “cd” to your download folder. Then move the file as follows: ( please be aware that anywhere you see “tombepa”, replace it with your username)

tombepa@tombepa-VPCEB36GM ~ $ cd Downloads

tombepa@tombepa-VPCEB36GM ~/Downloads $ mv android-sdk-linux_x86.tgz /home/tombepa

After you have moved it, you must unzip it. This is done with the “tar” command. First you must be in your home folder within the terminal because that is where the file is. After you moved the file, your terminal will still be in the Downloads folder and look something like this:

tombepa@tombepa-VPCEB36GM ~/Downloads $

Simply type “cd” without the quotes and press enter to return to the home folder:

tombepa@tombepa-VPCEB36GM ~/Downloads $ cd
tombepa@tombepa-VPCEB36GM ~ $

Then type in the “tar” command and press enter to unzip the file:

tombepa@tombepa-VPCEB36GM ~ $ tar xvf android-sdk-linux_x86.tgz

You will then see a lot of lines of text as it unzips. This will create a folder within your Home folder named “android-sdk-linux_x86” and it will contain all the contents it needs for now. It is then safe to remove the android-sdk-linux_x86.tgz file itself from the Home folder. If it is the only .tgz file in the folder then you can type this and press enter. It will remove all .tgz files from the Home folder.

tombepa@tombepa-VPCEB36GM ~ $ rm *.tgz

Now it is time to start the SDK and download the packages for Android Development. Now I am not sure if this is needed just to get ADB to work, but once again, I am a noob and was just going by the instructions. In the terminal, you must enter the newly created folder by typing:

tombepa@tombepa-VPCEB36GM ~ $ cd android-sdk-linux_x86/


Now that you are in the folder, type this to start the SDK:

tombepa@tombepa-VPCEB36GM ~/android-sdk-linux_x86 $ tools/android

A fews lines of text will come up and then after about 5 seconds the SDK graphical interface will open.
This can be seen in the video. On he left side, click the option that says “Available Packages.” Then click “Android Repository” in the middle of the screen. Once you have clicked that, it will automatically select all packages. I left it that way and clicked “Install Selected.” This took about 15 minutes to complete. Once again, probably overkill to install everything, but whatever.

From there I was graced with a link from CondemnedSoul to set up ADB. The link was:
http://wiki.cyanogenmod.com/index.ph...he_Android_SDK

This wasn't exactly the right page I was looking for, but in bold print, it said for ADB go here:
http://wiki.cyanogenmod.com/index.php?title=ADB
(I left the first link in because it gave good info as well on installing the SDK. So thanks CondemnedSoul on pointing me in the right direction!)

It instructed me to download a file linux_adb_fastboot.zip and extract it to ~/bin. After learning how to do that, I typed:

tombepa@tombepa-VPCEB36GM ~/Downloads $ unzip linux_adb_fastboot.zip -d ~/bin

What does it do? I don't know, just following orders.

Then it said I needed to set up udev. This apparently gives me and you the permission to use adb on the android device. There has to be rules written and permission given that the computer and the phone recognizes. The first thing to do is create a file called “51-android.rules” in this directory: /etc/udev/rules.d/

Since I can't remember which step actually worked to create the file. Here is the link I was using. I used them all because I did not really know what I was doing but it worked. If anyone can be more specific on how to create it, please enlighten me and I will amend this and give you credit of course.
http://forum.androidcentral.com/linux/57132-how-set-up-udev-rules-ubuntu-10-10-a.html

After it was created, I had to put all the rules in place. After using the instructions on setting up udev from Cyanogen, I came up with these rules. I put them in the file I created by using Nautilus to go to the file, right click on it, then select “Open as Administrator.” I do not know how to do it from the terminal, sorry.

SUBSYSTEM=="usb", SYSFS{idVendor}=="0bb4", MODE="0666"
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", SYSFS{idVendor}=="0bb4", MODE="0c98"
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", SYSFS{idVendor}=="0bb4", MODE="0ff9"
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", SYSFS{idVendor}=="0bb4", OWNER="tombepa" GROUP="tombepa"
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTR{idVendor}=="0bb4", MODE="0666"
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTR{idVendor}=="0bb4", MODE="0c98"
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTR{idVendor}=="0bb4", MODE="0ff9"
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTR{idVendor}=="0bb4", OWNER="tombepa" GROUP="tombepa"
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", SYSFS{idVendor}=="0bb4", USER="tombepa"

(Once again, wherever you see “tombepa”, replace it with your username.)

Click save, then exit all programs and reboot your computer.

Plug the phone in and open a terminal. Navigate to the tools folder inside the android-sdk-linux_x86 folder by typing:

tombepa@tombepa-VPCEB36GM ~ $ cd android-sdk-linux_x86/
tombepa@tombepa-VPCEB36GM ~/android-sdk-linux_x86 $ cd tools
tombepa@tombepa-VPCEB36GM ~/android-sdk-linux_x86/tools $

Then to test to see if it is working, type:

tombepa@tombepa-VPCEB36GM ~/android-sdk-linux_x86/tools $ adb devices

If it says;

List of devices attached
HTXXXXXXXXXX device

And the X's are actually numbers, then there you have it! ADB is working.

From there I was able to push my very first apk straight to my phone. With some help from Busphan, I was directed to save the apk I wanted to the “tools” folder, then type:

tombepa@tombepa-VPCEB36GM ~/android-sdk-linux_x86/tools $ adb push WHATEVER.apk /system/app

The first several tries it did not work. I then read some more and one website suggested to type:

adb kill-server
adb start-server
adb devices
adb remount
adb push WHATEVER.apk /system/app

I knew it had worked this time because after the last line, a line of text came up telling me how large the file was that was moved. Then I rebooted the phone by typing:

adb reboot

And there it was. Thank you one again to Tazzpatriot, CondemnedSoul, all the devs out there that put this stuff on the internet and youtube for us to learn, and especially Busphan for seeing me through the last steps.

Once again, if you guys see somewhere for me to be more clear about something, tell me what to fix and I will amend this post and give you credit.
 

Busphan

Senior Member
Jun 9, 2010
1,300
24
Awesome job man, I will definitely check this out, as I'm in the process of replacing ubuntu with mint 10 to try it out. This will come in handy to set up sdk and adb. Thanks for posting this.
 

Busphan

Senior Member
Jun 9, 2010
1,300
24
Just finished installing Mint 10. I will post again after I run through the sdk advanced process.

Sent from my Ginger Tazz using XDA App
 

tombepa

Senior Member
Jul 14, 2010
562
72
Just finished installing Mint 10. I will post again after I run through the sdk advanced process.

Sent from my Ginger Tazz using XDA App

When you get to the part about creating the File in udev for rules, if you can help me polish it up a bit, I am sure others would appreciate it.

Sent from my Droid using XDA Premium App
 
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Busphan

Senior Member
Jun 9, 2010
1,300
24
When you get to the part about creating the File in udev for rules, if you can help me polish it up a bit, I am sure others would appreciate it.

Sent from my Droid using XDA Premium App

Well, all went well, except we I got to the tools/android command. I kept type cd tools/android, lol. As for the udev portion that is beyond me, but I just followed the commands in the link and it worked. Although, I didn't do the extra stuff you said with nautilus. I wish I had some more input to "polish up" the udev portion but if folks follow the link it will be fine. So my thoughts are you wrote very good instructions to get adb working on Mint or Ubuntu. Again great job. Now all I have to do is go back in and set up eclipse.
 

doogald

Senior Member
May 27, 2010
1,387
337
Just a quick tip, most of the time when you are typing on a command line, such as the cd command, you can let the shell auto-complete the line by pressing tab. For example, when the active directory is your home, you can start typing cd andr and then press the tab key and it may/should automatically fill in the rest for you (cd android-sdk-linux_x86/.)
 

tombepa

Senior Member
Jul 14, 2010
562
72
Just a quick tip, most of the time when you are typing on a command line, such as the cd command, you can let the shell auto-complete the line by pressing tab. For example, when the active directory is your home, you can start typing cd andr and then press the tab key and it may/should automatically fill in the rest for you (cd android-sdk-linux_x86/.)

Thanx for the tip. Tgat does make it go faster and have less mistakes

Sent from my Droid using XDA Premium App
 

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    This instructional piece is brought to you by a complete noob. Please be aware that this is simply telling how I got ADB to work on LinuxMint 10 Julia. Some of the steps may be unnecessary but since I am a noob, I took bits and pieces of info and advice to finally accomplish my mission. The main reason I am writing this is because a lot of the tutorials I found are not written for people new to Linux like myself and I found myself confused by simple instructions because I was unfamiliar with some basic terminal commands.

    The first thing I did is watch this video on youtube.com. The instructions I am about to give for installing the SDK comes from here.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8UREMU-wSU

    This video walked me through step by step how to install the Android SDK in Ubuntu. Since LinuxMint is a derivative of Ubuntu, it worked perfectly.

    The first thing to do is go to this link and download the SDK for Linux.
    http://developer.android.com/sdk/index.html

    Then move the file to your home folder. Open a terminal and first “cd” to your download folder. Then move the file as follows: ( please be aware that anywhere you see “tombepa”, replace it with your username)

    tombepa@tombepa-VPCEB36GM ~ $ cd Downloads

    tombepa@tombepa-VPCEB36GM ~/Downloads $ mv android-sdk-linux_x86.tgz /home/tombepa

    After you have moved it, you must unzip it. This is done with the “tar” command. First you must be in your home folder within the terminal because that is where the file is. After you moved the file, your terminal will still be in the Downloads folder and look something like this:

    tombepa@tombepa-VPCEB36GM ~/Downloads $

    Simply type “cd” without the quotes and press enter to return to the home folder:

    tombepa@tombepa-VPCEB36GM ~/Downloads $ cd
    tombepa@tombepa-VPCEB36GM ~ $

    Then type in the “tar” command and press enter to unzip the file:

    tombepa@tombepa-VPCEB36GM ~ $ tar xvf android-sdk-linux_x86.tgz

    You will then see a lot of lines of text as it unzips. This will create a folder within your Home folder named “android-sdk-linux_x86” and it will contain all the contents it needs for now. It is then safe to remove the android-sdk-linux_x86.tgz file itself from the Home folder. If it is the only .tgz file in the folder then you can type this and press enter. It will remove all .tgz files from the Home folder.

    tombepa@tombepa-VPCEB36GM ~ $ rm *.tgz

    Now it is time to start the SDK and download the packages for Android Development. Now I am not sure if this is needed just to get ADB to work, but once again, I am a noob and was just going by the instructions. In the terminal, you must enter the newly created folder by typing:

    tombepa@tombepa-VPCEB36GM ~ $ cd android-sdk-linux_x86/


    Now that you are in the folder, type this to start the SDK:

    tombepa@tombepa-VPCEB36GM ~/android-sdk-linux_x86 $ tools/android

    A fews lines of text will come up and then after about 5 seconds the SDK graphical interface will open.
    This can be seen in the video. On he left side, click the option that says “Available Packages.” Then click “Android Repository” in the middle of the screen. Once you have clicked that, it will automatically select all packages. I left it that way and clicked “Install Selected.” This took about 15 minutes to complete. Once again, probably overkill to install everything, but whatever.

    From there I was graced with a link from CondemnedSoul to set up ADB. The link was:
    http://wiki.cyanogenmod.com/index.ph...he_Android_SDK

    This wasn't exactly the right page I was looking for, but in bold print, it said for ADB go here:
    http://wiki.cyanogenmod.com/index.php?title=ADB
    (I left the first link in because it gave good info as well on installing the SDK. So thanks CondemnedSoul on pointing me in the right direction!)

    It instructed me to download a file linux_adb_fastboot.zip and extract it to ~/bin. After learning how to do that, I typed:

    tombepa@tombepa-VPCEB36GM ~/Downloads $ unzip linux_adb_fastboot.zip -d ~/bin

    What does it do? I don't know, just following orders.

    Then it said I needed to set up udev. This apparently gives me and you the permission to use adb on the android device. There has to be rules written and permission given that the computer and the phone recognizes. The first thing to do is create a file called “51-android.rules” in this directory: /etc/udev/rules.d/

    Since I can't remember which step actually worked to create the file. Here is the link I was using. I used them all because I did not really know what I was doing but it worked. If anyone can be more specific on how to create it, please enlighten me and I will amend this and give you credit of course.
    http://forum.androidcentral.com/linux/57132-how-set-up-udev-rules-ubuntu-10-10-a.html

    After it was created, I had to put all the rules in place. After using the instructions on setting up udev from Cyanogen, I came up with these rules. I put them in the file I created by using Nautilus to go to the file, right click on it, then select “Open as Administrator.” I do not know how to do it from the terminal, sorry.

    SUBSYSTEM=="usb", SYSFS{idVendor}=="0bb4", MODE="0666"
    SUBSYSTEM=="usb", SYSFS{idVendor}=="0bb4", MODE="0c98"
    SUBSYSTEM=="usb", SYSFS{idVendor}=="0bb4", MODE="0ff9"
    SUBSYSTEM=="usb", SYSFS{idVendor}=="0bb4", OWNER="tombepa" GROUP="tombepa"
    SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTR{idVendor}=="0bb4", MODE="0666"
    SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTR{idVendor}=="0bb4", MODE="0c98"
    SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTR{idVendor}=="0bb4", MODE="0ff9"
    SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTR{idVendor}=="0bb4", OWNER="tombepa" GROUP="tombepa"
    SUBSYSTEM=="usb", SYSFS{idVendor}=="0bb4", USER="tombepa"

    (Once again, wherever you see “tombepa”, replace it with your username.)

    Click save, then exit all programs and reboot your computer.

    Plug the phone in and open a terminal. Navigate to the tools folder inside the android-sdk-linux_x86 folder by typing:

    tombepa@tombepa-VPCEB36GM ~ $ cd android-sdk-linux_x86/
    tombepa@tombepa-VPCEB36GM ~/android-sdk-linux_x86 $ cd tools
    tombepa@tombepa-VPCEB36GM ~/android-sdk-linux_x86/tools $

    Then to test to see if it is working, type:

    tombepa@tombepa-VPCEB36GM ~/android-sdk-linux_x86/tools $ adb devices

    If it says;

    List of devices attached
    HTXXXXXXXXXX device

    And the X's are actually numbers, then there you have it! ADB is working.

    From there I was able to push my very first apk straight to my phone. With some help from Busphan, I was directed to save the apk I wanted to the “tools” folder, then type:

    tombepa@tombepa-VPCEB36GM ~/android-sdk-linux_x86/tools $ adb push WHATEVER.apk /system/app

    The first several tries it did not work. I then read some more and one website suggested to type:

    adb kill-server
    adb start-server
    adb devices
    adb remount
    adb push WHATEVER.apk /system/app

    I knew it had worked this time because after the last line, a line of text came up telling me how large the file was that was moved. Then I rebooted the phone by typing:

    adb reboot

    And there it was. Thank you one again to Tazzpatriot, CondemnedSoul, all the devs out there that put this stuff on the internet and youtube for us to learn, and especially Busphan for seeing me through the last steps.

    Once again, if you guys see somewhere for me to be more clear about something, tell me what to fix and I will amend this post and give you credit.
    1
    Just finished installing Mint 10. I will post again after I run through the sdk advanced process.

    Sent from my Ginger Tazz using XDA App

    When you get to the part about creating the File in udev for rules, if you can help me polish it up a bit, I am sure others would appreciate it.

    Sent from my Droid using XDA Premium App