Make CentOS runlevel 3 to recognize adb device via udev

This was a tricky one. I needed some files from my home server which has run level 3 (Full multi-user text mode). It means no Graphical User Interface is present, everything happens from the command line. It’s a server after all. So, installed adb from the command line, that’s an easy one, with wget and android update sdk --no-ui.

So, adb like a pro, but notice first thing you have List of devices attached with no permissions. Can’t use adb shell or push files with adb push, or anything for that matter, because Android can’t allow the host computer to access without permissions and permissions cannot be allowed because there’s no GUI to notice when USB is connecting.

What you need to do is to log in to your Linux server CLI and run as root tail -f /var/log/messages, reconnect the Android phone to USB, take the “idVendor” from a line like:

kernel: usb 1-2: New USB device found, idVendor=XXXX, idProduct=XXXX

Then edit /etc/udev/rules.d/51-android.rules (new file) and add line:

SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTR{idVendor}=="YOUR_FOUR_LETTER_ID_HERE", MODE="0666", GROUP="plugdev"

Then just reboot or if you don’t want to lose uptime run udevadm control --reload-rules, then reconnect USB and voilĂ , there’s prompt in your phone!

Always beating challenges and learning new.

Thanks for reading! I need your attention for a moment.

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Roni Laukkarinen

Editor-in-chief and owner of Geeky Lifestyle blog. Truly a jack of all trades, a Swiss knife; an avid tech and multimedia geek, coder, owner of a digital agency company, sysadmin, music enthusiast, artist and film critic.

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