Installing Busybox command line tools

Installing Busybox command line tools

Installing Busybox Command Line Tools

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This article describes how to install the busybox command line tools in the Android file-system.

Please note that a pre-built version of busybox has been attached to this article if you would prefer not to build busybox yourself. To use the pre-built version please go to "installing busybox" and "make the busybox shell the default shell".

You can download the prebuilt version from here

 

Building Busybox

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To build busybox

• Download the latest version of busybox from the following website. At the time of writing the latest version was v.1.13.3.

• Extract the busybox source:

tar jxf busybox-1.13.3.tar.bz2

• Configure busybox by running menuconfig

cd busybox-1.13.3/
make menuconfig

• In menuconfig set the following options

Busybox Settings --> Build Options --> Build Busybox as a static binary (no shared libs)  -  Enable this option by pressing "Y"
Busybox Settings --> Build Options --> Cross compiler prefix  -  Set this option equal to "arm-none-linux-gnueabi-"
Busybox Settings --> Installation Options --> Don't use /usr  -  Enable this option by pressing "Y"

• Export path to where the cross-compiler is located on the host, for example:

export PATH=/opt/arm/arm-2007q3/bin:$PATH

• Build busybox

make

 

Installing Busybox

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To install busybox in the target file-system

• Create a /bin directory in the target file-system. For example:

mkdir //bin

• Copy the busybox binary to the /bin directory in the target file-system

cp busybox //bin

•  Install the busybox command line tools on the target by executing the following commands:

cd /bin
./busybox --install

 

Make the Busybox shell the default shell

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To make the busybox shell the default shell, edit the file "init.rc" in the target file-system as follows:

• Edit the console service so that it runs the busybox shell and not the default shell by replacing:

service console /system/bin/sh

With:

service console /bin/sh

• Add the path of the busybox command line tools to the system path variable by replacing:

export PATH /sbin:/system/sbin:/system/bin:/system/xbin

With

export PATH /bin:/sbin:/system/sbin:/system/bin:/system/xbin