Download Drivedroid No Root
Toney Talbot
DriveDroid simulates a USB thumbdrive or CD-drive by using the Mass Storage capabilities in the Android/Linux kernel. ISO/IMG files that are stored on the phone can be exposed to a PC like any other USB thumbdrive capabilities. That includes allows booting from the drive as well. The combination makes it quick and easy to do OS installations, rescues or have a portable OS on the go.
To make use of these capablities, DriveDroid requires root permissions on the phone. In addition, USB thumbdrive and CD-drive capabilities depend on the kernel of the phone. Most phones support simulating a USB thumbdrive, but not a CD-drive. Some phones support the exact opposite. There are kernel patches available to support both. The patches are included in a number of custom roms already.
I have the same issue, I assume the latest version of mkinitcpio has a bad bug. What makes matters worse is that I am on a 12 hour train ride and I need my laptop for work, and I don't have access to a recovery usb...
if you can get this far you should be able to proceed by exiting the emergency shell... unless that shell was pid 1 already, then you just exec /init or mount your rootfs to /new_root and exec switch_root /new_root/sbin/init ... something like that?
Maybe another passenger on your train has one or could help you create one. Or you could use your phone with DriveDroid or similar app that lets you use the phone like a thumbdrive. But I've never tried that.
If /etc/crypttab or corresponding kernel parameters exist I think you should be able to "systemctl start systemd-cryptsetup@.service" from the emergency shell. Perhaps you can also "systemctl start cryptsetup.target" to have all devices encrypted, but I'm not sure if targets work this way.
But my guess is that the situation here is different... most likely a custom encrypt hook was being used (plymouth?), that hook vanished (now integrated in regular encrypt hook), as a result the custom hook is no longer included at all, so the initramfs was built without any cryptsetup support.
I have only a working mobile phone and one 4GB USB drive. The 4GB drive has vacation photos on it. I have no friends to borrow things from. What to do? Step by step please, any terminal commands should be familiar to a Ubuntu user.
Yes, it's possible
Using only an Android phone with internet, root and a USB Cable, you can emulate a flash drive with your Android phone using an app called DriveDroid. However, this is not officially supported and you may be better off asking a local Linux enthusiast (or anyone else who has a working computer) to burn a LiveCD for you.
*There are a bunch of methods you could use to resolve your issue. You just have to be creative and resourceful enough to pull it off. You also have to do your research. There are plenty of online resources (tutorials) that can walk you through each process. You'll have to know your Linux stuff to get through the rest.
To view your mount points, mount paths, and partitions... Android handles this differently because it doesn't use a GNU OS. It uses a proprietary OS called Android. Google uses the Linux kernel as the base of the OS, but it won't function the way a normal GNU/Linux OS will typically function.*
I highly suggest reading some type of book on bash which is the most commonly used TTY aside from ksh and sh. The Linux Documentation Project website can help you out there. This takes some time though and won't immediately help you.
/, /boot/efi, and [SWAP] are all Linux partitions. Which means that sda1, sda3, and sda4 are my Windows partitions. I can use GParted (a Linux GUI for GNU parted) to modify and edit any required partitions.
Grub will still boot and you'll have to edit the EFI table so that only Linux shows up instead of looking for a missing Windows Boot Loader. I'm sure there are articles on Ask Ubuntu and the Arch Linux Wiki that explain this in greater detail.
You're most likely better off going to your local electronics store (or library), downloading the ISO, and dd it to your USB drive from there. You can create a local running instance of the applications you need so that they execute directly from the USB.
The employees won't understand what you're doing, so don't bother asking them for assistance. Most of the time, I just start doing what I need to do and nobody bothers me or even looks twice. I've actually taught a few employees basic things like how to access msconfig and how to tell what components are inside of the machine.
Worst case scenario, they can ask you to leave since you're not actually breaking any laws by doing this. If you feel uncomfortable, go as far as asking for permission (never hurts to ask and the worst they can do is say no).
Assuming you want to MacGyver the hell out of this, the only method I can think of would require an Android phone with a minimum of Android Lollipop OS (5.0), and which is USB OTG compatible (not all mobile devices are).
termux-setup-storage will create a storage directory in your termux home path that will allow you to access your internal SD storage without root access. (Typically, you would need to be root to access anything outside of termux from within the termux environ. The OS apps are typically encapsulated by design.)
Linux Deploy, JuiceSSH, and VNC Viewer can be used to locally connect to your running instance. I usually install something lightweight like XFCE, LXDE, or the like. There are enough GUI's to choose from to get what you might like. People typically prefer this setup because it gives them the ability to use Kali Linux OTG.
What's great about this is that any Android version over 2.2.x (I believe, feel free to correct me if I'm wrong) is capable of doing this. It can be very slow on older devices (speaking from experience).
From there, once youre logged in, you can do a lsblk, you should see your USB OTG drive pop up as a /dev/sda device and you can do your thing. This has access to your local partitions and what not as well as having access to all of your normal GNU applications instead of solely relying on busybox, Terminal Emulator, or Termux.
You can install Windows 10 from a wide range of external media. Keeping a backup copy of Windows 10 on a USB flash storage drive is useful. But what if you need a copy of Windows 10 when you're out and about?
If you don't have root access on your Android device, the rest of this tutorial will not work properly. DriveDroid requires root access on your device to mount the Windows 10 ISO properly. You'll also need root access if you want to install a different operating system, such as a Linux distro.
Unfortunately, the DriveDroid app is no longer being actively updated. Recent reviews on the DriveDroid Google Play page reveal that potential DriveDroid users using recently released smartphones running recent versions of Android are struggling to get DriveDroid up and running properly.
Furthermore, rooting your device can have other consequences, such as some apps failing to work post-root. You could attempt to trick apps into thinking your Android is not rooted, but there is no guarantee that it will work.
After the Windows 10 ISO finishes downloading, you need to copy it onto your Android smartphone in an easily remembered folder. It is best to copy the files to your Android using a USB cable, as you will also require an active connection for the rest of the tutorial.
DriveDroid will now test the USB connection settings for your Android device. DriveDroid needs to handle the USB connection as a mass storage device, allowing it to mount your Windows 10 ISO as a bootable image.
Using a USB cable, you need to connect your Android device to the PC you want to install Windows on. The PC should be switched off, to begin with. Connect the USB cable and your Android device to the computer.
Once you have the Windows 10 ISO and DriveDroid setup on your Android device, you're good to go. The only significant downside to the DriveDroid installation method is that your Windows 10 ISO will eventually become outdated.
The simplicity of the operating system makes it extremely easy to run from any device that has enough storage to hold the Linux image, which is what fueled Softwarebakery to come up with a way to boot Linux from an Android device.
DriveDroid allows users to download and boot a variety of versions of Linux without the need to install them on your computer. You can even boot Mac OS X or Windows if you want. For instructions on those systems, check out Danny's guide on the ElementalX kernel (DriveDroid starts at Step #9).
While it would be great to load up any Linux-based operating system, DriveDroid requires a specially formatted version of the OS, so I only recommend using a build that is listed in the app's download page. You will also need to be rooted in order for DriveDroid to patch your kernel, allowing your device to host a Linux OS.
DriveDroid is free to download, but if you feel generous and want to support the developers, there is a paid version ($2.70) that also removes ads, allows for resizing of images, and the use of custom distro repositories.
Since Linux is open source, there are many different flavors to choose from, called distros. The most popular is Ubuntu, but for this tutorial, I will be using Linux Mint since it has given me the best overall experience during my tests.
Tap the + icon, then select Download image... to head into the list of distros available for download. Grab the newest version that is compatible with your computer, and be sure to check whether you'll need the 32- or 64-bit version, as most distros come in both flavors.
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