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GNURootDebian

This is the repository corresponding to the GNURoot Debian Android app.

This can be built using the Android Studio 1.4 Beta 3, or any newer version that includes support for both the NDK and experimental gradle plugin 0.2.0. This includes the most recent version of Android Studio, version 2.1.2.

PRoot

PRoot is an open source project that can be found here at https://github.com/proot-me/PRoot

PRoot has been extended for GNURoot Debian to provide emulated Linux functionality on the Android operating system.

The Build Process

There are 3 essential components to build GNURoot Debian. They are PRoot, a rootfs.obb tar file, and GNURootDebian itself.

Unless changes are made to either PRoot or the rootfs that GNURoot Debian will use, skip to the Build GNURootDebian header.

If changes are made to these first 2 components, note that they can be built with the createReleaseRootfs.sh script located in GNURootDebian/GnuRootDebianSource/src/main/build_rootfs/

Using this script is the recommended method of building PRoot regardless of desired operating system and the recommend method of building the obb if you plan on using the jessie release of Debian.

Running this script requires the desired architecture for the bootstrap as the first argument and the desired location of the bootstrap as the second. It also requires that a version of PRoot and the disableselinux.c file be located in the same directory.

EG

./createReleaseRootfs armhf /PATH_TO_BOOTSTRAP

Build a bootstrap

Note: GNURoot by default supports only armhf, armel, and i386 architectures.

Suggested method of creating an i386 bootstrap while running an x86-64 architecture:

debootstrap --arch=i386 --variant=minbase --include=sudo,dropbear jessie $2 http://ftp.debian.org/debian

Suggested method of creating a bootstrap otherwise:

qemu-debootstrap --arch=$1 --variant=minbase --include=sudo,dropbear jessie $2 http://ftp.debian.org/debian

Where $2 is the pathname that will be the root of the bootstrap and $1 is the desired architecture.

Note: Other operating systems may require different bootstrap creation methods.

Build PRoot

Note: This requires the user to be privileged. Note: If running on the architecture you are building for, simply make PRoot on that architecture.

1.) Copy an unbuilt version of PRoot into the bootstrap.

2.) Chroot into the bootstrap.

3.) apt-get update and apt-get install libtalloc-dev and build-essential.

4.) Navigate to PRoot/src in the bootstrap and make PRoot.

5.) Exit the bootstrap and copy the executable made in the PRoot/src directory within the bootstrap to your desired location.

Build a rootfs.obb

1.) Chroot into the bootstrap.

2.) Make any changes to the file system that you would like to be present immediately upon running GNURoot Debian. See the createReleaseRootfs.sh script for examples.

3.) Exit the bootstrap.

4.) Delete the /dev directory of the bootstrap.

5.) Tar up the bootstrap.

Build GNURootDebian

1.) Download a version of Android Studio that supports both the NDK and experimental gradle plugin 0.7.3.

2.) Clone or download the zip file of GNURootDebian.

3.) If you built your own version of PRoot, rename the proot executable to proot.mp2 and copy it to

GNURootDebian/GNURootDebianSource/src/DESIRED_ARCHITECTURE/assets

4.) If you built your own version of rootfs.obb, rename it to

main.ARCH_INTEGER.com.gnuroot.debian.obb

where ARCH_INTEGER is 9 for armel, 10 for armhf, and 11 for i386. Copy the obb to

GNURootDebian/GNURootDebianSource/src/DESIRED_ARCHITECTURE/obb_DESIRED_ARCHITECTURE.

5.) Start Android Studio and import GNURootDebian as a project. If prompted to update your gradle plugin, ignore it.

6.) Navigate to Tools -> Android -> SDK Manager -> SDK Platforms and make sure that API levels 15, 21, 22, 23 are all installed. Then navigate to SDK Tools and make sure that the Android NDK is also installed.

You should now be able to build and run GNURootDebian!

##Extending GNURoot Debian with your own launcher app GNURoot Debian can be extended fairly easily to create new launchers for other user space programs. Two examples are currently available as open-source applications: GNURoot Octave GNURoot Runescape Launcher

Of the two, the Runescape Launcher is probably more simple.

There are a few key ingredients to extending GNURoot Debian:

1.) Create a tar.gz file with whatever contents you need. This will typically be at least an installation script, but could also include files necessary for your program to run.

2.) GNURoot Debian accepts intents with the action "com.gnuroot.debian.LAUNCH" which can be packaged with several extras. Installation will be handled automatically depending on the presence of certain extras.

MANDATORY EXTRAS:

Installation

a.) Include the string extra "launchType" with either "launchTerm" or "launchXTerm". This this value will determine whether your program is launched in a regular terminal or in a VNC session once installation is completed.

b.) Include the string extra "statusFile" with a name unique to your launcher. _passed or _failed will be appended to that name as a hidden file in the /support directory. This file is used to determine if the app can continue.

c.) Include the string extra "command" as the command to be run once installation is completed. This will typically be the location of your program.

d.) A data element that is your custom tar file. This must be treated as a URI. In the examples the tar files are placed in the projects assets directory as .mp2 files, renaming to .tar.gz once they have been installed, and then converted to a URI so that they can be shared with GNURoot Debian.

Launch

a.) Include the string extra "launchType" as above.

b.) Include the string extra "command" as above.

c.) Include the string extra "versionNumber" as described above.

d.) Include the string extra "packageName" as described above.

Credits:

Uses code from bVNC, Terminal Emulator for Android and PRoot.