adb shell su works but adb root does not

Question

I rooted my unlocked Galaxy S3  SGH-T999   Now  I m trying to run adb root from Windows Command Prompt  however  I m getting adbd cannot run as root in production builds error  So  the very first thing I checked was whether my phone was really rooted   So I tried the following   Open Command prompt   adb devices    lists my device  adb shell   goes to shell  su    opens a  SuperSu  prompt on my phone and I  Grant  permission      Before following the rooting instructions  I was getting  no su command found  in the previous step  So  I believe my phone is ROOTED    Correct me if I m wrong      However  when I do adb root  I get adbd cannot run as root in production builds error  So  I thought  I might have to do some additional stuff beyond what I did above  I tried all the solutions in the following SO questions    Launch a script as root through ADB adb remount permission denied  but able to access super user in shell -- android Unable to run   39 adb root  39  on a rooted Android phone   None of the above worked for me  All they do is give the ROOT access INSIDE of SHELL  I want adb root to work so that I can execute various adb commands WITHOUT going into shell

User · Answer

If you really need to have ADB running as root  the quickest and easiest way is to install Android Custom ROMs and the most popular is CyanogenMod for it has the Root Access options in developer options menu where you can choose to give root access to apps and ADB  I used CM before but since it wasn t developed anymore  I tried looking for some solutions out there  Although CyanogenMod is still a good alternative because it does not have bloatware    One alternative I found out from a friend is using adbd insecure app which you could try from here  https   forum xda-developers com showthread php t 1687590  In my case  it works perferct with an Android custom kernel  but not with the Android stock ROM  vanilla android only   You may try other alternatives too like modifying boot img of the Android ROM

User · Answer

adbd has a compilation flag option to enable root access  ALLOW ADBD ROOT 1  Up to Android 9  If adbd on your device is compiled without that flag  it will always drop privileges when starting up and thus  quot adb root quot  will not help at all  I had to patch the calls to setuid    setgid    setgroups   and the capability drops out of the binary myself to get a permanently rooted adbd on my ebook reader  With Android 10 this changed  when the phone tablet is unlocked  ro boot verifiedbootstate     quot orange quot    then adb root mode is possible in any case

User · Answer

By design adb root command works in development builds only  i e  eng and userdebug which have ro debuggable 1 by default   So to enable the adb root command on your otherwise rooted device just add the ro debuggable 1 line to one of the following files    system build prop  system default prop  data local prop   If you want adb shell to start as root by default - then add ro secure 0 as well   Alternatively you could use modified adbd binary  which does not check for ro debuggable   From https   android googlesource com platform system core   master adb daemon main cpp   if defined ALLOW ADBD ROOT     The properties that affect  adb root  and  adb unroot  are ro secure and    ro debuggable  In this context the names don t make the expected behavior    particularly obvious        ro debuggable       Allowed to become root  but not necessarily the default  Set to 1 on      eng and userdebug builds        ro secure       Drop privileges by default  Set to 1 on userdebug and user builds

User · Answer

I have a rooted Samsung Galaxy Trend Plus  GT-S7580    Running  adb root  gives me the same  adbd cannot run as root in production builds  error   For devices that have Developer Options -  Root access  choose  ADB only  to provide adb root access to the device  as suggested by NgaNguyenDuy    Then try to run the command as per the solution at Launch a script as root through ADB  In my case  I just wanted to run the  netcfg rndis0 dhcp  command  and I did it this way   adb shell  su -c netcfg rndis0 dhcp    Please check whether you are making any mistakes while running it this way   If it still does not work  check whether you rooted the device correctly  If still no luck  try installing a custom ROM such as Cyanogen Mod in order for  adb root  to work

User · Answer

In some developer-friendly ROMs you could just enable Root Access in Settings   Developer option   Root access  After that adb root becomes available  Unfortunately it does not work for most stock ROMs on the market

User · Answer

I use for enter su mode in abd shell  adb shell  su

User · Answer

You need to replace the adbd binary in the boot img sbin  folder to one that is su capable  You will also have to make some default prop edits too    Samsung seems to make this more difficult than other vendors  I have some adbd binaries you can try but it will require the knowledge of de-compiling and re-compiling the boot img with the new binary  Also  if you have a locked bootloader    this is not gonna happen    Also Chainfire has an app that will grant adbd root permission in the play store  https   play google com store apps details id eu chainfire adbd amp hl en  Lastly  if you are trying to write a windows script with SU permissions you can do this buy using the following command style    However  you will at least need to grant  on the phone  SU permissions the frist time its ran     adb shell  su -c ls   lt -list working directory with su rights   adb shell  su -c echo anytext    data test file   These are just some examples  If you state specifically what you are trying to accomplish I may be able to give more specific advice  -scosler

User · Answer

I ran into this issue when trying to root the emulator  I found out it was because I was running the Nexus 5x emulator which had Google Play on it  Created a different emulator that didn t have google play and adb root will root the device for you  Hope this helps someone

[android] adb shell su works but adb root does not

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