Next, we will figure out the exact location of your device’s bootloader image. The symbol in front of your device’s codename should change from $ to # indicating that you can now run commands with elevated privileges. How do you know if you’re good to go? Plug in your device, enable USB Debugging under Developer Settings, open up a command prompt, and type: As for the drivers, you can grab the necessary drivers for Google Nexus devices here and for all other devices from here. If you don’t have the ADB/fastboot binaries, then I recommend installing Minimal ADB & Fastboot from our forums. Another prerequisite you will need to meet is ensuring that your computer has all of the proper ADB/fastboot drivers. If you do not have root access, you can continue reading this guide for educational purposes, but you will not be able to perform any of the necessary commands. In order to extract your device’s bootloader, you will need root access on your phone. Make sure you have an off-device backup ready!īefore we get started, there’s one really, really important thing to note. But, we are still messing around with our device partitions and the bootloader, so there is no telling what could happen if you enter the wrong command. Let’s get started.ĭisclaimer: So long as you know what you’re doing and can follow instructions appropriately, nothing bad should happen to your device.
Most commands will not really help you in any real situation, but nevertheless it’s pretty interesting to dive this deep into your phone’s settings. However, what commands you will have access to will vary significantly between devices.
This guide, although done on my Nexus 6P, is most definitely replicable on the majority of smartphones. To make up for it, I’m going to walk you through something far, far more advanced and exciting: dumping your device’s bootloader to discover hidden fastboot commands. Now, I realize that some of you were disappointed in the fact that your smartphone was not covered in the previous article, and I apologize for that.
More recently, I’ve shown you how to access the hidden hardware diagnostic tool on certain smartphones. I’ve shown you how to access hidden menus on your device by sifting through all of the hidden application activities on your phone. In my quest to discover as much about Android customization as I possibly could, I’ve made many obscure, yet interesting discoveries.