Re: Canta and Shizuku

On 30/06/2025 22:05, Marion wrote:

On Mon, 30 Jun 2025 08:49:28 +0100, Jeff Layman wrote :
 

Anyone here tried Canta and Shizuku? Evidently gives partial root access
to phones which cannot be rooted, and appears to do so without using
adb, allowing unwanted apps to the uninstalled.
<https://f-droid.org/en/packages/org.samo_lego.canta/>
<https://shizuku-manager.en.uptodown.com/android>

 Hi Jeff,
 Nobody ever asked that question before (to my offhand knowledge).
Good. Let's learn from each other again. The whole team can pitch in.
 Besides, my bootloader is known to be unrootable so I may need it.
  <https://xdaforums.com/t/is-my-almost-3-year-old-t-mobile-network-unlocked-samsung-galaxy-sm-a326u-bootloader-still-unlockable-and-hence-is-my-sm-a326u-still-unrootable.4638955/>
 First thing I did was check Muntashirakon where I was not surprised
surprised to find I didn't have Canta but I was surprised to find I
must have loaded "Shizuku" <moe.shizuku.privileged.api" in the past as I
had Version 13.5.4.r1049.0e53409 (1049)" installed, which was in a
"Stopped" state with a "Date updated" of "September 14, 2024".
 When I clicked the main Shizuku activity using Muntashirakon, I
immediately started remembering why I had forgotten about it, which
is it says in the main activity, very clearly so, "For devices without
root, you need to use adb to start Shizuku. This process needs to be
repeated every time the device is restarted. Please read the help."
 It then has a rather nice "View command" button with a convenient "Copy"
button which copied this adb command for me into my Windows/Android
clipboard (remember, I'm always using scrcpy so they're one & the same).
  adb shell sh /storage/emulated/0/Android/data/moe.shizuku.privileged.api/start.sh
 This is the output in Windows.
  adb shell sh /storage/emulated/0/Android/data/moe.shizuku.privileged.api/start.sh
  info: start.sh begin
  info: attempt to copy starter from /storage/emulated/0/Android/data/moe.shizuku.privileged.api/starter to /data/local/tmp/shizuku_starter
  info: exec /data/local/tmp/shizuku_starter
  info: starter begin
  info: killing old process...
  info: apk path is /data/app/~~j2Bfj74f4DUXxNA5r8nvlQ==/moe.shizuku.privileged.api-EfgdS0yVAmbHZDgZAOOXtg==/base.apk
  info: starting server...
  info: shizuku_starter exit with 0
 I'm not quite sure what happened. Nothing changed on Android's screen.
Am I temporarily rooted? I don't know. (ah, I am).
 I searched for how to tell if you're rooted with Shizuku via USB/ADB,
and it turned out that those outputs are normal where the fact is
Shizuku doesn't root you but it adds temporary root-like privileges.

I would have been surprised if it had given full root access!

At top of the Shizuku activity I tap the three dots & it has an option
to "Stop Shizuku". I searched & found that means it worked perfectly.
 I searched some more and found that on my Android 13, I can disconnect from
the USB/ADB connection and Shizuku (which means "trickle" apparently) will
still work up until the next reboot. So I'm trickle rooted until I reboot.
 But it turns out, based on my search results, that I didn't even need to
use adb to start the Shizuku trickle rooter because there's a "pairing
code" in Android 13 Wireless Debugging which eliminates the adb step.

Good to know that it confirms adb isn't required. Looks like Shizuku has had a helpful update since you tried it last. But I'm a bit confused - that link I gave at <https://shizuku-manager.en.uptodown.com/android> states "In order to use Shizuku on a non-rooted smartphone, you'll need to go through a somewhat complex process. Luckily, the app itself has a tutorial that explains what to do step by step. You'll need access to a PC and a cable to connect your Android smartphone to the computer." What are you connecting the smartphone to a computer for if it's not to use adb?

These are the instructions from the search (but I didn't test them).
1. Go to Developer Options
2. Tap on Wireless Debugging > Pair device with pairing code
3. In Shizuku tap "Pairing"
4. The phone shows a 6-digit pairing code
5. Enter that code into Shizuku
 Once I saw those instructions, it's coming back to me slowly why I ditched
Shizuku a year ago, which is that you kind of need a split screen to do
both those tasks SIMULTANEOUSLY. I remember being frustrated & giving up.
 Anyway, with this wireless pairing, it apparently creates a secure
connection between Shizuku and the phone wireless debugging service.
 The beauty of the wireless pairing is it's one-time action, since it
survives reboots (but it doesn't survive a factory reset). Once you're
paired with Shizuku wirelessly, after you reboot, you can restart the
Shizuku trickle rooting using these steps (which I did not test).
1. Start the Shizuku app on your phone
2. Go to the "Start via Wireless Debugging" section of Shizuku
3. Tap the "Start" button in Shizuku under that heading
This is said to restart the connection, but it's also said to be a bit
flaky in that Android might change the port out from under Shizuku.

Any reason it would do that other than perhaps an update to Android itself? Or is there something which sets port choice as a privilege for certain apps above others?

My assessment?
a. It was a pain to set it up wirelessly (long ago),
b. But it's plenty easy to set it up with adb/usb.

I'm not clear - can it be set up wirelessly without adb? That should make things a bit easier.

Now that it's set up, what do I do with it?
Dunno. Let's run a search.
 My search results indicate that the best test is to try an app that needs
root access, but that will accept Shizuku trickle rooting as an option.
 So now I need to find an app that I want that can use Shizuku.
Searching, I found the following apps will take trickle rooting.
1. App Ops - Permission Manager (by Rikka, Shizuku's developer)
2. Universal Android Debloater (UAD)
3. Hail / Ice Box / Canta (App Freezers/Disablers)
4. DarQ
5. LSposed (and its modules)
6. AShell (or similar terminal apps)

App Ops was mentioned in the Shizuku link, and I did look at it, but thought it was getting a bit OT for something which seemed complicated enough already!

I'm not sure which to pick so let me see what they each do.
1. App Ops - Permission Manager (by Rikka, Shizuku's developer)
    Allows fine-grained control of app permissions beyond the basics.
2. Universal Android Debloater (UAD)
    Safely debloats using curated lists.
3. Hail / Ice Box / Canta (App Freezers/Disablers)
    Allows you to freeze apps that are causing you problems.
4. DarQ
    Applies a dark overlay to apps that don't have the option.
5. LSposed (and its modules)
    Performs advanced expert system tweaks & runtime modifications.
6. AShell (or similar terminal apps)
    Runs adb commands on the device (much like ladb does).
 Note that only the first item in the list is interesting to me, although
the second item will probably debloat any given device more safely than by
using the way I've been doing it with random adb uninstall commands.
 The rest are uninteresting to me, although since Jeff (the OP) mentioned
Canta, I ran a search to find that apparently Hail, Ice Box and Canta
freeze or disable apps on non-rooted Androids using Shizuku's trickle
rooting privileged access.
 A. Hail is the most popular app freezer.
B. Ice Box is also a freezer, similar to Hail.
C. Canta is more focused on debloating.
 All are integrated well with Shizuku apparently.
 Since I already debloat with adb, I searched for how the universal
debloater might help me, where the answer came back that the Universal
Android Debloater (UAD) can likely help me debloat more thoroughly and
safely than manual adb uninstall --user 0 commands, and it also makes
managing those "uninstalled" apps much easier.
 The reason UAD may be better than what I'm currently doing is they have
curated lists and some times they choose to disable rather than uninstall
some apps, which they know which ones they are, and I don't.
 Also restoring apps that were uninstalled is easier with UAD than the way I
would do it (but I've done it and it isn't all that hard even with adb but
you have to know the exact package name with adb but UAD has a GUI).
 Of course, the disadvantage of debloating with UAD is you need to have
Shizuku trickle rooting enabled, but, at this point, I have that! :)
 Thanks to Jeff's question, which I opened and at the start of this reply I
only wanted to help out my friend Jeff but I ended learning a lot.
 I hope this ad hoc off-the-cuff quick response is enough to be at least the
initial starter reply to Jeff's unique and rather important question for
this newsgroup of Android experts to ponder & flesh out more thoroughly
than I can.
 I should caveat this by saying I could be wrong on anything I said above as
I didn't have any successful experience with these tools in the past, but,
maybe this brand new effort to look at Shizuku a second time will be fruitful.
 What I need now is to install one of the apps that uses Shizuku trickle
privileges, which will likely be App Ops but this is already too long.

I wondered if you'd played with either Canta or Shizuku, although Shizuku seemed more likely.
I hadn't heard of either, and only came across Canta a couple of days ago when I did one of my infrequent peeks at "Latest" in F-Droid. Usually there's nothing of interest, but when "Canta" appeared it was of interest because my phone (like yours) is not rootable. I'd wondered, because of your previous posts mentioning that your phone was unrootable, if Canta/Shizuku might be of use, so posted that very open question here.
Of course, nothing's simple, and it soon became apparent that Shizuku was required for Canta to work. If you ask me, it seems that Shizuku is the critical app, and Canta piggy-backs on it (like the other half-dozen or so apps you mentioned).
Anyway, thanks for investigating what they do and how they work. It looks like they may be of even more use in future as manufacturers strive to put even more bloatware on new phones!
--
Jeff