Frequently Asked Questions
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Is «Terminal Emulator for Android» the same app as «Android Terminal Emulator»?
Yes. The name was changed due to Google Play branding guidelines. Unfortunately Google Play does not allow applications that start with the word «Android».
What is a terminal emulator?
A terminal emulator is a program that makes your Android phone act like an old fashioned computer terminal. It is useful for accessing the Linux command line shell that is built into every Android phone. This lets you run various Linux command line utilities.
If you don’t know what all that means, and why it’s cool, then this probably isn’t the program for you. (Sorry!)
Help, I’m lost. How do I use the Android shell?
I’ve written a brief, incomplete, guide to using the built-in Android shell: Android Shell Command Reference
What sort of games does this emulator play?
Sorry, this is a terminal emulator, not a game emulator. It has nothing to do with games.
Does Terminal Emulator for Android allow me to «Root» or «Hack» my phone?
Sorry, no. Terminal Emulator for Android does not help you root or hack your phone.
How can I root or hack my phone?
I don’t know how to do that. I use «developer» edition Android phones that don’t need to be rooted, and I don’t have any interest in hacking phones. Maybe ask on an enthusiast web site like http://forum.xda-developers.com/
Is Terminal Emulator for Android useful on an ordinary phone, that hasn’t been rooted?
Yes! You can access the entire /sdcard file system, and you can install and run Linux command-line applications in the parts of the /data file system that are accessible to the Terminal Emulator for Android process.
You can also run command-line programs that access the Internet.
Why do I get «permission denied» errors when I try to run commands in the terminal?
This message is being printed out by the Android shell. It means one of two things:
It might simply mean that you have misspelled the command name, or are trying to use a command that is not installed on you device. The Android shell will print «permission denied» when it just can’t find the command, instead of a more accurate error message like «command not found».
It could mean that the command exists, but you don’t have permission to run it. By default Terminal Emulator for Android runs using the permissions of the Terminal Emulator for Android application. You may need to become «root» in order to gain permissions to run some commands. You can use the «su» command to do this. Of course, most consumer Android devices don’t have root access enabled by default, so you may not be able to use the «su» command on your device.
Why does Terminal Emulator for Android request Internet and Photos/Media/Files permissions?
By itself, Terminal Emulator for Android doesn’t access the Internet or Photos/Media/Files. However, many users of Terminal Emulator for Android want to run command line programs that do these things.
The way Linux (and therefore Android) works, a child process inherits the permissions of the parent. Terminal Emulator for Android requests the Internet and Photos/Media/Files write permissions so that the command-line programs that it runs can have access to the Internet and Photos/Media/Files stored on the device and any attached SD Cards.
So, for example without the Internet permission a command like
Similarly, without the Photos/Media/Files permission a command like
If giving these permissions to the terminal emulator makes you uncomfortable, you could download the source code to Terminal Emulator for Android and compile your own version. (Edit the AndroidManifest.xml file to remove the INTERNET and WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE permissions.)
Why don’t the Arrow Keys / DPAD / Trackball work ?
They do work, sort of. They send the proper escape sequences for VT-100 terminal arrow keys. It is up to the «shell» to interpret these escape sequences.
Pre-Gingerbread (pre 2.3) versions of the default Android shell do not handle these escape sequences. Gingerbread (Android 2.3) and later versions of Android work correctly. But that doesn’t help people with older versions of Android.
If you have a Froyo (2.2) or earlier version of Android, you can fix this problem by installing an alternate shell, such as the one in Busybox. The Busybox «ash» shell recognizes the arrow escape sequences sent by the terminal emulator.
Even on newer versions of Android people sometimes run into this problem when they switch between shells. (as when using the «su» command, which starts a new shell process for the root account.) You may need to take extra steps, such as manually setting the «TERM» environment variable in your new shell environment.
Why doesn’t the Back key work?
It sends the «ESC» character by default. Use the Preferences panel to change this behavior:
Menu Key -> «More»-> «Preferences» -> Back button behavior
Swype soft keyboard has problems typing a lowercase ‘i’. Is there a work-around?
Several people have reported this bug. Unfortunately, I can’t reproduce it using Swype 3.25 Beta on Android 2.3.6. Maybe it’s fixed in the latest version of Swype. Please try installing Swype 3.25 or later and see if that fixes the problem.
SlideIt soft keyboard always types upper-case letters. Is there a work-around?
I have reproduced this with SlideIt version 4.0.1 on Android 2.3.6. There is a work-around, which is to tap on the «ABC» button on the upper-right-hand-corner of the SlideIt soft keyboard. This switches SlideIt into letter-at-a-time mode.
Could you make a full programmer soft keyboard with ctrl, tab, esc?
Many people report good results using the free Hacker’s Keyboard IME. Also available from Hacker’s Keyboard Download on github
Why don’t you include a telnet or ssh client?
That’s a good question! I guess I really ought to. Maybe one of these days I’ll get around to it. In the meantime, see Installing BusyBox and ssh without Rooting your Device
Could you make tab completion work?
Similar to the «Arrow Keys» question above, tab completion is the job of the shell, not the terminal emulator. The built-in Android shell prior to the Ice Cream Sandwich release does not provide tab completion. You can turn on tab completion by installing an alternate shell, such as the one that comes with Busybox.
What is Busybox?
Busybox is a collection of Linux utility programs that is designed to be run on small Linux devices, such as your Android phone.
Where can I get Busybox for my Android Phone?
Do a web search for «Android Busybox» and read through the results.
Do I need root access to install and use Busybox?
I’m building my own Android ROM, can I include Terminal Emulator for Android in my ROM?
How can I get the menu key to work with Terminal Emulator for Android on my Nook?
The Nook does not have a physical menu key. If you want Terminal Emulator for Android to work with a Nook, you will have to install a version of Android that supports soft menu keys. Android 3.0 (Honeycomb) provides support for soft menu keys.
How can I contribute a localization?
Why does Terminal Emulator for Android ask for certain permissions?
Please read the Terminal Emulator for Android Privacy Policy.
I am using Android version 4.3 or newer and I can’t get ‘su’ or ‘ping’ to work. Why?
In order to better protect ordinary users from malware, the Android OS enhanced its security model in the 4.3 and 4.4 releases.
One of the security enhancements made in Android 4.3 was to remove the ability to run setuid/setgid programs. Setuid and setgid are Linux features that enable programs to run with elevated permissions. The ping command is an example of a setuid program. Ping needs the elevated permissions in order to send and receive the special network packets used in the ping network protocol. When the ping command is run by Terminal Emulator for Android under Android 4.3 or later, the setuid/setgid feature is disabled. The ping command fails because ordinary Android applications do not have permission to send or receive the network packets used in the ping network protocol.
For similar reasons, some techniques for getting ‘su’ root access no longer work correctly on Android 4.3 and 4.4.
I don’t follow the rooting scene, so I don’t have any advice for how to work around these new security enhancements in Android 4.3 and 4.4. I guess it might be possible to create a custom ROM with a non-standard security policy, that for example allowed setuid/setgid to work again. But I don’t know if anyone’s doing that. If you’re interested I guess you need to read up on the Android ROM hacking scene. (Which I also don’t follow, so I can’t suggest which ROMs are good or not. A few years ago xda-forum and CyanogenMOD were popular, but I don’t know if that’s still the case today. Good luck!)
How do I fix «Unknown error code during application install: -505»?
This error means that there is a custom permission conflict between «Terminal Emulator for Android» and some other application that is installed on your device. Terminal Emulator for Android declares three custom permissions, and starting with Android 5.0 Lollipop, only one application at a time can be installed for any given custom permission.
The three custom permissions are:
One relatively straightforward way to figure out which applications conflict with Terminal Emulator for Android is to:
Uninstall all the apps you suspect might be using these permissions.
Install Terminal Emulator for Android.
Try to reinstall the suspected apps.
The conflicting app should fail to reinstall.
For what it is worth, some people have reported that the following application conflicts with Terminal Emulator for Android:
- jrummy ROM Toolbox Pro
So if you happen to have that app installed it might be the problem.
Hey, my bash is vulnerable to the Shellshock bug. How do I fix that?
Shellshock is a security bug in some versions of the bash shell. You can test whether your version of the bash shell is vulnerable by running this line in the terminal
If you see output like this then your version of bash is vulnerable:
Stock Android does not include the bash shell, so most Android devices do not have this bug. Some custom ROMs like CyanogenMOD 10 and 11 are reported to come with vulnerable versions of bash.
In addition, you could have manually installed your own version of bash, by for example installing a Debian chroot.
If you discover that your Android device has a vulnerable version of bash, you will need to figure out where the vulnerable version of bash comes from (either the ROM or something you installed) and then contact the vendor and ask them for a fix.
Unfortunately there’s nothing Terminal Emulator for Android can do to help (or hinder) this. It just runs whatever version of bash you have installed on your device.
Источник
Android Shell Command Reference
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#The Android Shell
A «shell» is a program that listens to keyboard input from a user and performs actions as directed by the user. Android devices come with a simple shell program. This shell program is mostly undocumented. Since many people are curious about it I thought I’d write up some documentation for it.
The built-in shell has very limited error handling. When you type a command name incorrectly it will say «permission denied», even though the real problem is that it couldn’t find the command:
#The PATH variable
The Android shell will run any program it finds in its PATH. The PATH is a colon (‘:’) seperated list of directories. You can find out what your shell’s PATH is set to by using the built-in echo command:
Depending upon your shell, you may see a different result.
#Built in Commands
Every shell has a few built-in commands. Some common built-in commands are:
- echo — prints text to stdout.
- set — sets shell variables
- export — makes shell variables available to command-line programs
- cd — change the current directory.
- pwd — print name of the current directory.
#Commands To find out what commands you have available to you, use the «ls» command on each of the directories in the PATH variable.
##Finding documentation for the Android commands.
Many of the Android commands are based on standard Linux (or bsd) commands. If you’re curious about a command, you can sometimes learn how it works by using the «man» command on a desktop Linux or OSX (Apple Macintosh) computer. The Linux or OSX version of the command may be different in details, but much of the documentation will still apply to the Android version of the command.
Another source of documentation for people without a Linux or OSX machine handy is to use a web browser and use a web search engine to search for the text: «man Linux command-name».
##List of commands
The following is a list of the commands that are present on a Nexus S phone running an Android 2.3.3 «user-debug» build. Many of these commands are not present on a «user» phone. (They are missing from a «user» phone because they are specific to developing or debugging the Android operating system.)
Notice that by default there is no /data/local/bin directory. You can create this directory using the «mkdir» command if you like.
The /sbin directory exists, but you don’t have permission to access it. You need root access. If you have a developer phone, or otherwise have root access to your phone you can see what’s in this directory.
Notice that the shell prompt changes from a ‘$’ to a ‘#’ to indicate that you have root access.
Notice also that neither of the /sbin commands are useful to the shell — the adb and ueventd files are ‘daemon’ programs used to implement the Android Debugger «adb» program that is used by developers.
Vendor/bin is where device vendors can put device-specific executables. These files are from a Nexus S.
This directory does not exist on a Nexus S.
am is the Android Activity Manager. It’s used to start and stop Android activities (e.g. applications) from the command line. Type am by itself to get a list of options.
Command line audio file player.
Used to apply patches to android files.
Command line audio recorder.
Backup manager — type command by itself to get documentation.
Draws the boot animation. You may have to reset your phone to get out of this.
Copy the contents of a file to standard output.
Change the mode of a file (e.g. whether it can be read or written.)
Change the owner of a file.
Compare two files byte-by-byte
The dalvik virtual machine. (Used to run Android applications.)
Prints the current date and time
Convert and copy a file. By default copies standard in to standard out.
Shows how much space is free on different file systems on your device.
Shows the current configuration of network interfaces (IP, MAC address etc)
Shows the current processes using the network interfaces (top, but for networks)
Manage the firewall
Send signals to processes.
Used to set up a file system link.
Prints the Android runtime log.
Make a directory.
A program that sends random events, used to test applications. (Like having a monkey playing with the device.)
Move a file from one directory to another. (Only on the same file system. Use «cat a > b» to copy a file between file systems.
List active processes.
Reboot the device.
Remove a directory.
Starts the Android runtime.
Stops the Android runtime.
Shows which processes are currently using the most CPU time.
Prints how long your device has been running since it was last booted.
Secure copy program. (Used to copy files over the network.)
Used to administer SQLite databases.
System trace command — use to see what system calls a program makes.
Start a shell with root privileges.
#Versions of the Android Shell
- Android 1.0 used a shell that had no tab completion or history editing.
- Android 2.3 added history editing. You can for example use the up/down arrows to edit previous commands.
Busybox is a program that contains a shell and a set of command line utilities. Search Android Market for «Busybox» and you should find some versions you can install. The Busybox shell includes tab completion and history editing. Some versions of Busybox for Android do not require that you root your phone.
You can install the full Debian shell and utilities. (Debian is a popular desktop Linux distribution.) I don’t know the details, and it may require a «rooted» phone. Try a web search for «Debian Android install».
Some custom ROMs come with their own shells and utilities. If you are using a custom ROM, check its documentation to find out what’s available.
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