Tech-Old

What I did to my Nokia TA-1053: Started on stock Android 7 Updated to Android 9 Downgraded to Android 7 (required for bootloader unlocking) Upgraded back to Android 9 (after unlocking) Flashed TWRP (one of the trickier steps) Rooted with Magisk If your stock recovery has been overwritten, you can no longer install OTAs directly. To get back on track: Downgrade to stock Android 7.1 Unlock bootloader (if not already done) Install all available OTAs up to Android 9, including the July security patch Flash Magisk (if needed) HMD Global is unlikely to roll out Android 10 for this device. Security patches should still be fine. ...

I mostly use Android for my daily stuff rather than my laptop. But when I do use my laptop, I’ll rarely touch my phone. 🙃 I was running nginx in Termux on port 80 for some reason. Since SELinux is set to permissive mode, it wasn’t stopping me from doing that. To start a server on that port, I had to be root — so I started nginx as root, which means it was running with root privileges. That’s essentially a real root user on my host, able to access my files and anything else. Running it in Docker would at least be better. Or you could get more fine-grained control via SELinux, AppArmor, or Firejail with custom profiles for tighter security. I found a good article about this > here <. It’s a Medium article. ...

After a long break, I’m back ;-) Let’s talk about WebDAV — what it is and how to set it up on Android. WebDAV stands for “Web Distributed Authoring and Versioning.” It uses the HTTP protocol and is essentially an extension of HTTP that adds file management capabilities — create, move, copy, delete files on a remote server. In simple terms, it’s a file server you access through a URL. ...

This tutorial will show you how to run Windows XP on an Android device without root, using Limbo — a QEMU-based PC emulator for Android. Prerequisites: Limbo APK: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.playdead.limbo.full&hl=en Windows XP ISO: http://www.mediafire.com/file/044jjkysj3unuab/WinLite.iso Blank disk image: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1CTJ1RdPN_WWXlJOHB0MUktYW8/view Alternative: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7e707nzxn4cYUt6VEx2Y1NjM1k/view?usp=sharing NOTE: If the blank disk image has no file extension, rename it to blankdisc.img. Before proceeding, note your device’s RAM, chipset type, and processor. You can find these with an app like My Device. ...

You can fetch webpage source directly from the Android terminal using wget — no browser required. Other options include downloading an app like VT Source Viewer, or using validator.w3.org online. But there’s something satisfying about the green terminal window. We’re using the wget command. To see its options, run: wget -h Basic usage In this example I’m fetching an Amazon page (note: this was written in 2017 — Amazon now uses HTTPS everywhere): ...

In my previous article I covered how to access SQLite databases on Android. Here we’ll look at how to explore those databases to gather more information. Among Android’s databases, some contain sensitive information: lockscreen.db Browser sessions, browser history, cached images, and more. You can also explore databases of installed apps to read or modify their stored values. For example, some people use apps like GameGuardian to change game scores. With direct SQLite access you can do the same — and more — without any third-party tool (root access required). ...

Let’s have a small look at Android’s internal structure. Android has a layered architecture. The Android library includes components like: Surfaces Manager SSL SQLite …and more. Android stores application data in SQLite databases. These run through the DVM (Dalvik Virtual Machine), and essential app data is kept in SQLite format. NOTE: This isn’t about exploiting SQL databases — it’s just a tutorial on how to access them. I’ll cover exploiting SQLite databases in a separate article. ...

Apktool is a utility for decompiling and recompiling Android APKs. It extracts DEX (Dalvik Executable) bytecode into smali — a human-readable representation of the DEX format. To view .dex and smali files, I use the 920 Text Editor. It’s my personal favourite. Prerequisite: Root access is required. Step 1: Download Apktool from: https://code.google.com/archive/p/apktool/downloads This is a zip file. Extract it to the root of your default storage — not inside a subdirectory. ...

A friend asked me to fix an issue on his phone: he couldn’t connect to the Play Store or Gmail, and kept seeing “Connection problem, try again later.” After some investigation, here’s what I found. Common causes: Google Play Services has been removed or disabled. Google Play Services is outdated — try updating it. If you’re using a system cleaner app, make sure Google Play Services is whitelisted — some cleaners kill it in the background.

Warning: Rooting your Android device removes built-in security protections and disables OTA updates from the manufacturer. Do this at your own risk. Requirements: Battery above 10% Good internet connection Patience ;-) Download the KingoRoot app (not KingRoot — these are different apps): https://www.kingoapp.com Enable internet, open the app, and tap Root Now. You may see a popup saying “There is no root files available for your device.” Ignore it and tap Continue Anyway. ...