8 nov 2013

Enable Wifi Tethering on my MTK6589 Flying F600 with Android Jelly Bean 4.1.2

The problem

Google has introduced changes in the tethering module since Android 4.1.2 to allow carriers to charge their customers Internet usage from other devices. [1]

On the other hand, I have a less famous Android 4.1.2 mobile phone, the Flying F600, which uses the Mediatek MTK6589 Quad Core processor, so I needed a rooting kit that works with this phone and preferably with my MacBook Pro with OS X 10.8.5.


The solution

Overview

  1. Download and root the phone
  2. Create a script for enabling NAT using iptables
  3. Download and install Script Manager
  4. Configure the script to execute automatically
  5. Add the tethering widget to your home screen.

Steps

1. Download and root the phone

Before I did this I had no idea, but I'm a hacking guide, so I have plenty of knowledge SSH, shell scripting, networking, etc.

The root kit which I found to work well is the one I found at droidchina forums [2]. The download link is here. Previous to downloading I had to register.

I just followed the steps of the article. The compressed zip file includes the Android Debug Bridge executable ADB for Windows, Linux y OS X.

Before running the rooting command (run.sh), make sure your phone's USB connection is debug mode. In the following screen shot you can see the spanish version.


What I found interesting is the "adb shell" command which lets you hack directly your device. In combination with "su -" you can do a lot of things. It's just a custom Linux OS:

2. Create the script for enabling NAT

After some attempts to enable NAT using iptables, I found that the following script worked best:
su -c "iptables -tnat -F"
su -c "iptables -tnat -A POSTROUTING -s 192.168.0.0/16 -o ccmni0 -j MASQUERADE"
su -c "echo 1 > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_forward"
You can write the script using "adb shell" and "vi". Save the script to /sdcard. I called it "tether_enable". You could also write it using an Android Text Editor like Jota or using a Terminal with vi or some other native commands like cat, etc.

Some explanations here:

  • The first line flushes iptables "nat" routing table. This is good when the script is executed several times.
  • The "ccmni0" interface is my normal public 3G data services interface. You can use the "netcfg" command to find out yours. Anyway, you can try it without specifying the "-o ccmni0" option of iptables.
  • I tried it with "-A natctrl_nat_POSTROUTING" found in several forums but it didn't work for me. I still don't know why. So I used the POSTROUTING chain.
  • Whenever I enable or disable tethering, ip_forward is reset to 0.

3. Download and install Script Manager

Script Manager (SManager) is an excellent application to enable script execution. It allows you to execute scripts directly, mark it as favorite, execute on boot or on network change.



4. Configure the script to execute automatically

After installing it, I selected my /sdcard/tether_enable script and marked it as favorite, root and net. This executes the script whenever the network config changes.

       Select the script       
Mark as favorite,
root and net

5. Add the tethering widget to your home screen

Locate the tethering widget
Hold and drag it to
 the home screen       
Choose Wifi tether      
Widget is on home screen

Conclusions / What I learned

  • Android is just a custom Linux
  • Rooting your Android phone opens lots of new possibilities
  • Rooting is easy
  • Tethering is fixed by enabling NAT (with iptables)
  • How to capture screens: use "adb 

References


No hay comentarios:

Publicar un comentario