Has anyone tried DriveDroid?
 

Hi guys,

Just tried this little app and it's great. It lets you boot any hybrid iso image on your PC or laptop from your Android device. It's useful to recover your system in case of emergency, or simply to try out and install new distros from your tablet/phone, as you would with a USB key. You can have as many iso images as your device's storage capacity allows and boot the one you need.

Best Android app I've found so far. BTW, requires a rooted device.

Yeah.It is also how I reset the password with ntpassreset on a victim's PC

Didn't know about ntpassreset. Good to know in case of need.

Thanks for the kind words, and spreading the app! Always cool to see DriveDroid mentioned somewhere.

Are you the developer? Thanks for creating this app! It will spare me burning CDs and dd'ing images into USB keys to try new distros. And it's good to have a set of iso images in my tablet to use in emergencies.

Cheers.

Yes, I saw your post through Google Alerts since it mentioned DriveDroid. Good to hear it serves you so well! It's exactly the reason I've initially looked for such an app and finally found a way to built my own ;).

Did you also make Slitaz?

sounds cool... does it support persistence ?

It has a 'Writable USB' option, but I haven't tried it yet. I guess it works with distros that support persistence.

is it open source can I read the code mm . Is there anyway I can prove it is ok with out reading the code . If you can read the code all is good.

No I haven't. I recommend it to some people because it is such a small download for such great features (great bang for buck ;)).

Well, your phone becomes a USB drive (or CD drive depending on your phones kernel/rom). If you can make your OS persistent on a USB thumb drive, you can do the same in DriveDroid. Usually you can just install the OS onto the USB disk (just like any other /dev/sdX)

I haven't open sourced it yet. I'm kindof on the fence on it. Most of what DriveDroid does is call a specific feature of kernel (USB gadget) to let it host a certain image. A lot of the complexity of DriveDroid comes from making it compatible with all phones... if you ignore that and presume your phone is 'normal' then I can explain what DriveDroid does.

1. First it acquires root with:

$ su

2. Then it sets the USB gadget mode to 'mass_storage':

# echo "mass_storage" > /sys/devices/virtual/android_usb/android0/functions

3. Then it hosts an image onto the mass storage device:

# echo "/path/to/your/image.iso > /sys/devices/virtual/android_usb/android0/f_mass_storage/lun/file

There are a number of details I'm leaving out of this (powering on/off USB, setting USB PID, stuff like that), but these steps are the core of what DriveDroid does on most phones.

i have a galaxy s2 (unnamed rom). part of the reason i never upgraded is the fones ability to mount as a normal flash drive.

maybe i can get a newer fone and use it to drag-and-drop music and videos without the need for mtp.

Ah, alright. The Galaxy S2 can certainly be used as a USB drive, however Samsung has hardcoded it as a CD drive in their kernel/rom. More information can be found on the DriveDroid-thread on XDA under "USB-drive and CD-drive emulation": http://forum.xda-developers.com/show....php?t=2196707

Basically a patched kernel can be both a CD drive as well as an USB drive. CyanogenMod has a patched kernel for your phone. Check the link for possible other patched kernels.

Looks good - must try it out. Although I alread have a boatload of USDs ... :rolleyes:

Thx
 

Thx for developing drivedroid, that app is one of the best andoid apps i've ever used and it has made my life so much easier many many times! :D