Other reasons:

• speed: transfers are a LOT faster (especially in peak hours)
• SSH access ;)
• Full DNS zone access
• Cheaper prices for domain names
• …

If you encounter any oddities, feel free to let me know…

After installation, you can fix it with as follows (as root):


cd /tmp
tar xf /usr/lib/vmware/modules/source/vmnet.tar
tar xf /usr/lib/vmware/modules/source/vmci.tar

cd vmnet-only
sed -i "/vnetInt.h/ a\#include \"compat_sched.h\"" vnetUserListener.c

cd ../vmci-only/include
sed -i "/compat_page.h/ a\#include \"compat_sched.h\"" pgtbl.h

cd /tmp
tar cf /usr/lib/vmware/modules/source/vmnet.tar vmnet-only
tar cf /usr/lib/vmware/modules/source/vmci.tar vmci-only


and rerun vmplayer.

I recently got an HTC Hero. Great phone, I’m loving the Android platform. Pity that you don’t have full access to it, and I actually wanted to merge my old phone (Nokia E65)’s SMS database into this one, so I needed full access.

(Un)fortunately, these days the HTC Hero comes with the latest firmware, 2.73.1100.5, which on the one hand makes rooting harder (fixes several bugs and fastboot no longer works) but on the other hand makes the phone respond a lot better.

After some twiddling and reading on the XDA Developers Forum, I came up with this recipe:

Downloads needed:

• asroot2.zip (current root exploid for Android, works on HTC Hero): http://forum.xda-developers.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=244212&d=1257621154
• Superuser.zip (for the su binary and the Superuser.apk): http://forum.xda-developers.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=211569&d=1249225060
• Android SDK (for the HTC Hero, it’s the 1.5 platform): http://developer.android.com/sdk/android-1.5.html

Howto:

• Download the Android SDK, and install/extract it somewhere. I’m using Linux and put it under /home/<user>/android/
• Download asroot2.zip, superuser.zip, and extract them in a directory of your choice. For instance, /tmp.
• Change to the Android SDK directory and in that one /tools (here: /home/<user>/android-sdk-linux_86/tools/
• Start adb (Android Debug Bridge): ./abd wait-for-device
• Put your phone in HTC Sync mode: drag the notification bar down and activate HTC Sync

After a while adb should return to the prompt. Should mean your phone has been found.

• Copy asroot2 and su on the phone in /data/local:
  ./adb push /tmp/asroot2 /data/local/
./adb push /tmp/su /data/local/
• Open a shell to the device: ./adb shell
• Make asroot2 executable, and launch it:
  chmod 0755 /data/local/asroot2
/data/local/asroot2 /system/bin/sh

Your phone should greet you with:

[+] Using newer pipe_inode_info layout
Opening: /proc/564/fd/3
SUCCESS: Enjoy the shell.
#

At this point, remount your /system filesystem read-write.
Before remounting, executing the mount command should return a line containing:

/dev/block/mtdblock3 /system yaffs2 ro 0 0

Now, remount the fs:
mount -o remount,rw -t yaffs2 /dev/block/mtdblock3 /system
(this returns no output)

And now executing mount should return a line like:

/dev/block/mtdblock3 /system yaffs2 rw 0 0

and copy the su binary into /system/bin:
dd if=/data/local/su of=/system/bin/su
and make it executable with root permissions:
chmod 4755 /system/bin/su

Next, copy the Supseruser.apk to the SD card and install it.
Then, reboot your phone (power off and on).

Restart your abd shell, and execute su in your adb shell: su, and on the phone it should come ask if you want to allow root permissions:

Tap “Allow”, et voila, you now have a rooted phone.

Another shameless advertisement for the upcoming Nacht van FCP&D organised by the Flemish Caledonian Pipes & Drums – Clan MacKenzie, for our 20^th year anniversary. We’re playing together with the Royal Fanfare St-Cecilia Teralfene.

The place to be? St-Bavo Humaniora, Lange Boomgaardstraat, in Ghent. The underground Reep parking is less than 100m away.

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