Has root but no root?

[Dawid Ciecierski]

Greetings Taskers!

Been only using this little app for a few days on wife's phone and so far impressed with the functionality and power it offers. Definitely worth the few dollars (actually, Polish Zloty) spent.

The one thing that is bugging me is the way root functionality is implemented. There is no switch in preferences that would automatically ask for root like in file managers, you have to hope the app discovers the existence of su by itself. And discover it does not. It did not ask for root by itself so I added "# modversion" to my build.prop (without the quotes), I also — per XDA suggestion — run a "delete a nonexistent file as root" task, got asked for root permissions, agreed... And still some magical "yes I have root" switch inside the app did not click — whenever I try to add an Airplane Mode toggle I get the infamous "Try the Secure Settings plugin and a rooted device" message:

Yes, I have installed Secure Settings and it is working. But having to install another app just to circumvent a non-functional root discovery in Tasker seems lame. In my 5+ years of owning rooted Android devices this is the first app that is having problems utilizing root. Judging by that and the number of threads regarding Tasker+root, it seems to me that this is somewhat poorly implemented in Tasker. 

But until the devs correct this strange behaviour and offer a better UX surrounding root for us all (perhaps a toggle in settings?), does anyone have ideas how to coerce Tasker into knowing it has already been granted SU permissions and allowing me to add an Airplane Toggle?

Thanks is advance,

Dawid

[Pent]

You need to use the Secure Settings action from the Plugin category
rather than the builtin Airplane Mode action.

Pent

[Dawid Ciecierski]

But why cannot Tasker do what the Secure Settings plugin does if it has root access? I mean, the code should already be there for pre-4.2 devices...

Dawid

[Pent]

But why cannot Tasker do what the Secure Settings plugin does if it has root access? I mean, the code should already be there for pre-4.2 devices...

I believe the implementation involves installing a helper app in the system partitiion, it's
not a case of ticking some 'do this as root' flag in the identical pre-4.2 code.

In addition, I don't like to copy functionality available via plugins when I could be doing
something else which is not available at all, or fixing bugs in core Tasker.

Pent

[Dawid Ciecierski]

Pent, 

I believe you are not entirely correct regarding helper apps on system partition. Otherwise why would file explorers offer a simple "root" checkbox that, once root permissions are asked for and granted, allows for full root functionality? Even Simple Explorer, which as the name suggests is a rather bare-bones explorer, has that. It is open source so you can check for yourself here on XDA. 

In addition, the free app Condi that I used before was able to toggle my airplane mode without much trouble on the very same device. (It was the lack of maintenance that forced me to look for alternatives.)

I can see your point regarding copying functionality but from my point of view this leaves Tasker missing important basic functionality and thus incomplete. Would not mind if it were free or very cheap but it is neither. To offer you my experience: once I discovered it requires external (paid for also) apps to do what from my standpoint is essential "let's-start-with-that" actions, I was (1) very disappointed and (2) seriously considering returning it to the Play Store — but wanted to make sure I'm doing everything right before.

Dawid

[Pent]

I believe you are not entirely correct regarding helper apps on system partition. Otherwise why would file explorers offer a simple "root" checkbox

Looking at files is not the same problem as calling an Android API.
 

that, once root permissions are asked for and granted, allows for full root functionality? Even Simple Explorer, which as the name suggests is a rather bare-bones explorer, has that. It is open source so you can check for yourself here on XDA. 

In addition, the free app Condi that I used before was able to toggle my airplane mode without much trouble on the very same device. (It was the lack of maintenance that forced me to look for alternatives.)

I suspect it would do it the same way as Secure Settings.

I can see your point regarding copying functionality but from my point of view this leaves Tasker missing important basic functionality and thus incomplete. Would not mind if it were free or very cheap but it is neither.

You don't have to pay extra money to get airplane mode via Secure Settings.

To offer you my experience: once I discovered it requires external (paid for also) apps to do what from my standpoint is essential "let's-start-with-that" actions, I was (1) very disappointed and (2) seriously considering returning it to the Play Store — but wanted to make sure I'm doing everything right before.

I have no trouble understanding that viewpoint, though I find it a but over-the-top considering how easy
it is to install the plugin for free.

Pent