Fix for empty app-mounted directories (CifsManager, etc.) in Android 4.2

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mkasick

Retired Recognized Developer
Aug 10, 2009
470
830
Android 4.2 breaks Dalvik-apps that mount file systems to be shared with other apps. This includes CifsManager, Mount Manager, essentially anything that mounts cifs shares, FUSE file sytems, etc. The symptom is that the mounted contents appear fine to app that peforms the mount operation (assuming the app itself provides the ability to browse the contents), but every other app only sees an empty directory at the mount point.

It turns out that this problem is a side-effect of the approach used to implement multi-user storage in Android 4.2. I've explained the problem in detail in the commit log for a Gerrit issue we're reviewing for CyanogenMod 10.1 that addresses the problem:
Zygote patch commit message said:
Zygote: Restrict slave mountspace so Dalvik apps can mount system-wide volumes

Android 4.2 implements multi-user storage using per-process mount namespaces. Originally, everything under "/" (the entire filesystem hierarchy) is marked as a recursive-slave mountspace for all zygote instances. This is done so that user-storage sandbox mounts under /storage/emulated are hidden from other apps and users.

Unfortunately this means that any Dalvik app (actually, any program whose clone/fork ancestry includes a Dalvik zygote, which is everything except services spawned directly from init) cannot mount system-wide volumes. Thus, apps like CifsManager are effectively broken in Android 4.2, since its cifs mounts are only visible to the CifsManager app itself. All other apps see empty mountpoints instead of the mounted volume. Furthermore, Linux provides no provision for a process to "escape" a recursive-slave mountspace in versions prior to Linux 3.8 (setns syscall).

Here, we restrict the slave mountspace to /storage (and, due to a possible kernel bug, /mnt/shell/emulated) so that Dalvik apps can mount system-wide volumes elsewhere (with appropriate permission, as in earlier versions of Android), while retaining full multi-user storage compatibility.

This change requires that a tmpfs volume is mounted as /storage in init.rc. If this volume is unavailable, then Zygote falls back to the previous behavior of marking the entire filesystem hierarchy as slave. It also implicitly requires that EMULATED_STORAGE_TARGET is path-prefixed by (part of the subhierarchy of) ANDROID_STORAGE, which is the typical case.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Ideally, any 4.2 ROM can provide support for CifsManager by applying a change to Dalvik, and a second change to the boot ramdisk's init.rc:
Alternatively, ROMs that can't/prefer not to use a source-build Dalvik (libdvm), I've also provided a kernel patch that implements a similar workaround within the kernel. It also requires the above init.rc modification:
With either of the above two fixes, CifsManager et al. should work when using a mountpoint outside /storage (and /mnt/shell/emulated). I'd recommend using "/mnt/cifs" or something similar. Attempting to mount inside /storage retains the previous behavior where the mount can not be seen by other apps.

Note that ROMs only need one of the above two fixes, although they are compatible with each other and will function correctly if both are present. The Dalvik approach is preferred over the kernel workaround where feasible. Attached are the three patches referenced in the issues/commits.
 

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W

wadimka

Member
Aug 27, 2011
46
7
So is it possible, for a noob like me, to get it working wihtout learning all that coding stuff etc.?
 
vorcers

vorcers

Senior Member
May 21, 2012
158
127
I wanted to know if it really works - and it works! :good:

I created a Nexus 7 wifi kernel and shared it. Thank you so much!
 
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D

debully

Senior Member
Dec 8, 2005
583
36
Worcester
Can anyone noobproof this into a flash able zip?

PA is perfect for me except for no cifs.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk HD
 
B

bubbleguuum

Senior Member
Dec 23, 2010
6,905
2,660
It would be really awesome if a fix or hack to this issue (empty directories if app is not launched before mounting) could be found without requiring a kernel patch.

I tried the debuggerd method supposedly used by StickMount and found that it didn't work: app still sees empty mount if its process is started after mount.

Btw, app sees mounts if its process is started before because mounts are propagated in that case. They are just not inherited on process creation due to how zygote spawn app processes and initializes their mounts.

I never understood how hacking debuggerd could work to fix this issue as this is not much different to me than running a shell script invoking adb shell in loopback mode (requires root), since debuggerd and adbd run with identical priviledges:

Code: 
setprop service.adb.tcp.port 5555
stop adbd
start adbd
adb connect localhost
adb shell mount ....

I've found a workaround that involves hijaking the obb directory by mounting whatever you want over /mnt/shell/emulated/obb. This directory is systematically bind mounted by the Zygote process in <external storage root>/Android/obb (see source code) when it spawns an app's process

Unfortunately this hack is not very usable because it has the side effect that any app expecting its data in the obb directory will not find it. And you can only mount one filesystem here.


Conclusion: with the new 4.2 multiuser support, Google made miserable all apps dealing with mounting.
 
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xdadevnube

xdadevnube

Senior Member
Jun 28, 2011
1,038
178
Just found this thread. This is seriously sweet! I had to roll back to 4.1.2 ROMs on the Nexus 7 because of the CIFS issue. Thanks for all the hard work creating this fix.
 
munhoz

munhoz

Senior Member
Sep 14, 2012
152
60
Seems like it's Merged on CM 10.1, im right ? its says "Merged" on github. It happened today. Maybe on tomorrow nightly :)
 
moliverac8

moliverac8

Senior Member
Jul 28, 2012
737
80
Madrid
Now,on any ROM with 4.2 I can use app like directory bind to transfer data to sd and it will work?

Enviado desde mi GT-P3110 usando Tapatalk 2
 
T

tristaoeast

Senior Member
Jul 16, 2011
135
19
Lisboa
vanzano said:
same here. I'll wait for next nightly. Otherwise i'll do by myself.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Today's Nightly of CM 10.1 has this already working. I mounted a Network share on my Nexus 7 with Cifs Manager under /mnt/cifs/my_subdir (I don't remember if I had to create the my_subdir first) and it worked!! you should try it ;D
 
Last edited:
D

Doncabezon

Senior Member
Oct 1, 2010
144
14
I was under the impression that with this fix, your mount point had to be outside of mnt. Basically, you couldn't use it to bind data for apps ex. Directory bind. Has directory bind been tested?

Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda premium
 
vorcers

vorcers

Senior Member
May 21, 2012
158
127
Doncabezon said:
I was under the impression that with this fix, your mount point had to be outside of mnt. Basically, you couldn't use it to bind data for apps ex. Directory bind. Has directory bind been tested?

Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

The directory need to be outside of /storage and its links:

/storage
/mnt/sdard
/sdcard

/mnt itself isn't affected. Maybe only the subfolders are affected...
 
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    mkasick
    Android 4.2 breaks Dalvik-apps that mount file systems to be shared with other apps. This includes CifsManager, Mount Manager, essentially anything that mounts cifs shares, FUSE file sytems, etc. The symptom is that the mounted contents appear fine to app that peforms the mount operation (assuming the app itself provides the ability to browse the contents), but every other app only sees an empty directory at the mount point.

    It turns out that this problem is a side-effect of the approach used to implement multi-user storage in Android 4.2. I've explained the problem in detail in the commit log for a Gerrit issue we're reviewing for CyanogenMod 10.1 that addresses the problem:
    Zygote patch commit message said:
    Zygote: Restrict slave mountspace so Dalvik apps can mount system-wide volumes

    Android 4.2 implements multi-user storage using per-process mount namespaces. Originally, everything under "/" (the entire filesystem hierarchy) is marked as a recursive-slave mountspace for all zygote instances. This is done so that user-storage sandbox mounts under /storage/emulated are hidden from other apps and users.

    Unfortunately this means that any Dalvik app (actually, any program whose clone/fork ancestry includes a Dalvik zygote, which is everything except services spawned directly from init) cannot mount system-wide volumes. Thus, apps like CifsManager are effectively broken in Android 4.2, since its cifs mounts are only visible to the CifsManager app itself. All other apps see empty mountpoints instead of the mounted volume. Furthermore, Linux provides no provision for a process to "escape" a recursive-slave mountspace in versions prior to Linux 3.8 (setns syscall).

    Here, we restrict the slave mountspace to /storage (and, due to a possible kernel bug, /mnt/shell/emulated) so that Dalvik apps can mount system-wide volumes elsewhere (with appropriate permission, as in earlier versions of Android), while retaining full multi-user storage compatibility.

    This change requires that a tmpfs volume is mounted as /storage in init.rc. If this volume is unavailable, then Zygote falls back to the previous behavior of marking the entire filesystem hierarchy as slave. It also implicitly requires that EMULATED_STORAGE_TARGET is path-prefixed by (part of the subhierarchy of) ANDROID_STORAGE, which is the typical case.
    Click to expand...
    Click to collapse

    Ideally, any 4.2 ROM can provide support for CifsManager by applying a change to Dalvik, and a second change to the boot ramdisk's init.rc:
    Alternatively, ROMs that can't/prefer not to use a source-build Dalvik (libdvm), I've also provided a kernel patch that implements a similar workaround within the kernel. It also requires the above init.rc modification:
    With either of the above two fixes, CifsManager et al. should work when using a mountpoint outside /storage (and /mnt/shell/emulated). I'd recommend using "/mnt/cifs" or something similar. Attempting to mount inside /storage retains the previous behavior where the mount can not be seen by other apps.

    Note that ROMs only need one of the above two fixes, although they are compatible with each other and will function correctly if both are present. The Dalvik approach is preferred over the kernel workaround where feasible. Attached are the three patches referenced in the issues/commits.
    View
    3
    vorcers
    vorcers
    Use /data/media/0

    DualJoe said:
    And what if we want to overlay something inside the slave mountpoints? I'm trying to figure out how to overlay my obb folder in init.d.

    Code: 
    mount -o bind /storage/sdcard1/obb /mnt/shell/emulated/0/Android/obb
    Click to expand...
    Click to collapse

    Short: Mount inside /data/media/0

    Long:
    1. You can't use for bind mountpoints inside /storage. Use some other place, like /.
    2. Mount inside /data/media/0

    Example for your example:
    Code: 
    mount -o bind /mounts/sdcard1/obb /data/media/0/Android/obb

    This should make your files available inside /mnt/sdcard and all other virtual mountpoints. Android redirects this somehow.

    But I don't know if the games are also working with this. You need to test this.
    View
    3
    madmack
    madmack
    CreatiV92 said:
    You misunderstood. I have Stickmount, and it works fine.

    I want to carry cache games on the external flash drive with the command "bind mount", but I can not. All of the Nexus 7 with 4.2.2 can not move the cache. So I wanted to use the patch "dalvik.diff", just do not know how to install it, the forum did not find information on installation .diff on android. Or is it not help?
    Click to expand...
    Click to collapse

    I'm actually working on an app that should do just that.

    Google for FolderMount here on xda.
    View
    3
    munhoz
    munhoz
    lopez1_de said:
    The cifs folder was created, but had insufficiend permissions. I set chmod 777 on /mnt/cifs but had no luck to get it running. After a reboot, the folder /mnt/cifs was gone. :confused: But /storage/emulated/0/cifs is still there and I can't delete it. :eek:

    Is there any way to get md4.ko and nls_utf8.ko?
    Click to expand...
    Click to collapse

    I dont know about your problem, but about folder going missing after reboot. I got a solution for you:

    Copy these content and save as CHOOSE_A_NAME.sh on /etc/init.d:

    #!/system/bin/sh
    #
    # Create and Mount Dir
    #
    sleep 70
    su
    mount -wo remount /
    mkdir /mnt/cifs
    mkdir /storage/cifs
    chmod 777 /mnt/cifs
    chmod 777 /storage/cifs
    ln -s /mnt/cifs /storage/cifs
    mount -ro remount /

    Now everytime you reboot your phone those folders/permissions and links will be created. That sleep 70, i put that option there because i dont know if there's any side effect using mount command after system boot. So it will take 70 secs to run those commands.

    Im not a specialist on android but im using this script to create my mount point under /mnt/obb/Cypher and it's working pretty well.
    View
    3
    D
    dw7017
    bubbleguuum said:
    It would be really awesome if a fix or hack to this issue (empty directories if app is not launched before mounting) could be found without requiring a kernel patch.

    I tried the debuggerd method supposedly used by StickMount and found that it didn't work: app still sees empty mount if its process is started after mount.

    Btw, app sees mounts if its process is started before because mounts are propagated in that case. They are just not inherited on process creation due to how zygote spawn app processes and initializes their mounts.

    I never understood how hacking debuggerd could work to fix this issue as this is not much different to me than running a shell script invoking adb shell in loopback mode (requires root), since debuggerd and adbd run with identical priviledges:
    Click to expand...
    Click to collapse

    The debuggerd method worked well for my use case, which was simply to mount my home movie (samba) server at /sdcard/Movies/cifs. I am using a Nexus 4 running Faux kernel, but with stock Android 4.2.1 ROM (JOP40D). Here is my flow :

    - Replace debuggerd with your own script that performs the mount then runs the renamed original debuggerd (debuggerd.bin below). Android starts the debuggerd service at boot, and at that point the mount will fail as wireless is not connected. However, Android will automatically restart debuggerd if it is killed. So we create another script that kills debuggerd and use a ScriptManager widget to call that script at the click of a button. Assuming wireless is connected, the mount will succeed when debuggerd is rerun by Android.

    1. /system/bin/debuggerd
    Code: 
    #!/system/bin/sh
/system/bin/mount_movies.sh
exec /system/bin/debuggerd.bin "[email protected]"

    2. /system/bin/mount_movies.sh
    Code: 
    #!/system/bin/sh
/system/xbin/busybox umount /sdcard/Movies/cifs
/system/xbin/busybox mount -t cifs -o ip=<ip_address>,unc=\\\\<ip_address>\\shared,user=<username>,pass=<password> //<ip_address>/shared /sdcard/Movies/cifs

    3. /system/xbin/kill_debuggerd.sh
    Code: 
    #!/system/bin/sh
mypid=$(/system/xbin/busybox ps -o pid,comm | /system/xbin/busybox grep 'debuggerd' | /system/xbin/busybox awk 'NR == 1 {print $1}')
/system/bin/kill $mypid

    I then used SManager app and added kill_debuggerd.sh to its favourites. Then used SMWidget to add a button to launcher that runs this script when clicking the button.

    [There is nothing special about debuggerd, you can choose to replace any process that is started by init.rc and doesn't specify oneshot. The important thing is that Android will rerun your script when the its process is killed :)]
    View

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