Answers to some questions about Android Terminal Emulator

What is a terminal emulator?

A terminal emulator is a program that acts like your Android phone's old fashioned computer terminal. This is useful for accessing the Linux Command Line shell, which is built in every Android phone. This lets you run various Linux command line utilities.
If you do not know what it means, and why it is good, then this is probably not a program for you.(Sorry!)

Terminal Emulator for Android Screenshot

What sort of games does this emulator play?

Sorry, this is a terminal emulator, not a game emulator. It has nothing to do with the game.

Is Terminal Emulator for Android useful on an ordinary phone, that hasn't been rooted?

Yes! You can access the entire / sd card file system, and you can install and run Linux command line applications in the portable/data file system parts for the terminal emulator for the Android process.

You can also run a command line program that accesses the Internet.

Why do I get "permission denied" errors when I try to run commands in the terminal?

This message is being printed by the Android shell. It means one of two things:

1. This may mean that you typed the command name incorrectly, or are trying to use the command installed on your device. The Android will print "Not Permission Denied" when it can not get a command instead of a more precise error message like "Command not found".

2. This may mean that the order exists, but you do not have permission to run it. Terminal emulator for Android runs by using the Terminal emulator's permission for Android applications by default. You need to be "root" to get permission to run some commands. To do this, you can use the "su" command. Of course, most consumer Android devices do not have access to active routes by default, so you will not be able to use "su" command on your device.

Why the Terminal Emulator for Internet and Photo / Media / File Permissions for Android Request?

In itself, the terminal emulator for Android does not reach the Internet or photos / media / files. However, many users of Terminal Emulator for Android want to run this command line program that does this stuff.

Linux (and therefore Android) works, a child's process obtains parental permission. Terminal emulator for Android can write permission to the Internet and photos/media/files so that the command line programs can access it and access files stored on the Internet and photos/ media/devices and any attached SD card.

So, for example, an order is allowed without the internet

 ping 

Will not work

Similarly, a command is allowed without photos / media / files

 mkdir /sdcard/myNewDirectory 

Will not work

The terminal emulator allows you to make this uncomfortable if you allow this, you can download the source code in Terminal Emulator for Android and compile your own version. (Edit the AndroidManifest.xml file to remove the INTERNET and WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE permissions.)

Why don't the Arrow Keys / DPAD / Trackball work?

They work, the way. They send the appropriate escape sequence for the VT-100 terminal arrow keys. It is up to the "shell" to explain these escape sequences.

The pre-gingerbread (pre 2.3) version of the default Android shell does not handle these escape sequences. Gingerbread (Android 2.3) and later versions of Android work correctly. But it does not help people with older versions of Android.

If you have the Fioio (2.2) or older version of Android, then you can fix this problem by installing an alternative problem, such as one of the Busybox Busybox "Ashes" recognizes the sequences of avoiding the arrow sent by the shell terminal emulator.

Android also sometimes participate in this problem on newer versions of people as they switch between shells. (When using the "su" command, which starts a new shell process for the root account.) You may have to take additional steps such as manually setting the "TERM" environment variable in your new shell environment.

Why doesn't the Back key work?

It sends the "ESC" character by default. To change this behavior, use the priority panel:

Menu key -> "more" -> "preferences" -> back button behavior

Swype soft keyboard has problems typing a lowercase 'i'. Is there a workaround?

Many people have reported this bug. Unfortunately, I can not reproduce it on Android 2.3.6 using Swipe 3.25 Beta. Maybe it's fixed in the latest version of the swipe. Please try setting swipe 3.25 or later and see if the problem has been fixed or not.

SlideIt soft keyboard always types upper-case letters. Is there a workaround?

I have represented it with Slide version 4.0.1 on Android 2.3.6. Tap the "ABC" button on the upper-right corner of Slide-It's soft keyboard, which is a workaround. It slides into the slide-in-a-time mode

Could you make tab completion work?

Like the above "arrow key" question, the task of the tab completion shell is not the terminal emulator. The Android tablet tab created before the release of Ice Cream Sandwich does not provide completion. You can turn on tab completion by setting up an optional shell like comes with Busybox.

What is Busybox?

Busybox is a collection of Linux utility programs designed to run on small Linux devices like your Android phone.

How can I get the menu key to work with Terminal Emulator for Android on my Nook?

Nook does not have a physical menu key. If you want a terminal emulator for Android, in order to work with a nook, you have to install a version of Android that supports the soft menu key. Android 3.0 provides support for soft menu keys.

I am using Android version 4.3 or newer and I can't get 'su' or 'ping' to work. Why?

To better protect common users from malware, Android OS extended their security models in the 4.3 and 4.4 releases.

One of the security enhancements made in Android 4.3 was to remove the ability to run a setuid / setgid program. Setuid and setgid are Linux features that enable programs to run with advanced permissions. Ping command is an example of a set program. Ping needs advanced permissions to send and receive special network packets used in Ping Network Protocol. When the ping command is run by Terminal Emulator for Android 4.3 or later for Android, then the Setuid / Setgid facility is disabled. The ping command fails because normal Android applications are not allowed to send or receive network packets used in the ping network protocol.

For this reason, some techniques do not work correctly on Android 4.3 and 4.4 to get root access to 'su'.

I do not follow the rooting scene, so I do not have any advice on working around these new security enhancements in Android 4.3 and 4.4. I think it would be possible to create custom ROM with a non-standard security policy, for example, Set / Setgid is allowed to work again. But I do not know if someone is doing this or not. If you are interested then I think you need to read on the Android ROM hacking scene. (Which I do not even believe, therefore, I can not suggest which of the ROMs are good or not. A few years ago, xda-forum and CyanogenMod were popular, but I do not know that this is still the case.

How do I fix "Unknown error code during application install: -505"?

This error means that there is a custom permission conflicts between "Terminal emulator for Android" and some other apps installed on your device. Terminal emulator for Android announces three custom permissions, and Android 5.0 starts with Lollipop, only one app can be installed at any one time for any custom permissions.

There are three custom permissions:

jackpal.androidterm.permission.RUN_SCRIPT      
jackpal.androidterm.permission.APPEND_TO_PATH  
jackpal.androidterm.permission.PREPEND_TO_PATH 

A relatively simple way of finding out which applications to combat with Terminal Emulator for Android is:

1. Uninstall all apps using these permissions.
2. Install Terminal Emulator for Android
3. Try to restore suspicious apps.
4. Conflicting app must be unable to restore.

To be worth it, some people have said that the following application fights with the terminal emulator for Android:

•  jrummy ROM Toolbox Pro

This problem can occur if you have that app installed.

Hey, my bash is vulnerable to the Shellshock bug. How do I fix that?

Some versions of ShellShock Bash shell have a security bug. You can test that your version of Bash open is weak by running this line in the terminal

 env x='() { :;}; echo vulnerable' bash -c "echo this is a test" 

If you see such output, then your version of Bash is weak:

vulnerable     
this is a test 

Stock Android does not include Bash shell, so most of the Android devices do not have this bug. Certain custom ROMs like CyanogenMod 10 and 11 have been reported to come with weak versions of the bash.

In addition, you could manually install your version of Bash, for example installing Debian Crotch.

If you find that your Android device has a weak version of Bash, then you will need to find out where the bad version of Bash comes from (either ROM or something you have installed) and then from the vendor Contact and ask them to fix.

Unfortunately for Android, the terminal emulator cannot help anything (or obstacle). It runs the version of Bash installed on your device.