Busybox for Android the Easy Way (just a quick hack) ==================================================== This little package is designed to make your life easier if you are using the shell under an Android device. It includes a full-fledged Busybox environment that should make a fair replacement for the poor toolbox that comes with Android by default. You can install it in two ways: if you are compiling Android yourself, then you can add this package to your repository and Busybox will replace the default Toolbox whenever possible. If you already have a deployed (and rooted!) Android device, you can deploy busybox on it. Installing in your Android source tree -------------------------------------- Simply add a 'local_manifest.xml' file (or edit the existing one) in the .repo directory located at the root of your Android source tree with the following lines: Then run "repo sync" and build your images normally. Installing on an already-deployed Android device ------------------------------------------------ Run the 'android-install.sh' script while your device is connected. This will remount the system partition read-write, copy busybox, and make the appropriate symlinks on your device. You will need adb in your path for this to work. Misc ---- The files busybox-android.patch and busybox-android.config are a patch that allows ash history to work on Android and the configuration used to build Busybox, respectively. The busybox binary has been built statically against glibc - unfortunately, it seems impossible to build it against Android NDK. Non-executable .sh scripts are not meant to be run directly by the user. Compiling yourself ------------------ It should be pretty easy to recompile the binary yourself by following these steps: 1. Get and install the latest GNU/Linux toolchain from [here] (http://www.codesourcery.com/sgpp/lite/arm/portal/subscription?@template=lite) (unless you already have a working toolchain installed). Make sure the binaries directory is in your PATH. 2. Get and unpack the latest source for Busybox. 3. Apply `busybox-android.patch` from the git repo to Busybox source if you want to be able to use the profile and history under Android. 4. Copy `busybox-android.config` from the git into Busybox's source root and rename it to `.config`. Edit it and make sure `CONFIG_CROSS_COMPILER_PREFIX` is correctly set to your compiler's name. 5. Run `make` and you should obtain the `busybox` binary. TODO ---- Cleanup, proper configuration options and upstream integration, maybe? Feedback & contact ------------------ Alexandre Courbot