Compile BusyBox On Android OS

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Busybox is a set of frequent-used unix tools, including awk, ifconfig, route, ip … etc.
If you would like to enjoy the shell in android ‘just like under unix’, busybox is a great tool to have on your android.
Here we provide some info on how to cross-compile busybox for android system.

  1. Download BusyBox Source Code

    2. You can get the source code from the BusyBox Official WebSite.

  2. Download ARM Cross-Compiler

    3. You can get the cross-compiler from codesourcery.com.
    Note: I tried to use the arm-eabi-* compiler in android_ndk, but it seems to need a lot of configurations (such as sysroot, etc.). Thus, I choose to use arm-none-linux-gnueabi-* compiler, it will make the following steps a lot easier.

  3. Setup .config File
    4. $ make menuconfig

    Select Busybox setting -> Build options -> select Build BusyBox as a static binary (no shared libs)
    and Set Cross Compiler prefix as “arm-none-linux-gnueabi-”

    $ make
  4. Push BusyBox into Android
    5. $ adb shell "mount -o rw,remount -t yaffs2 /dev/block/mtdblock3 /system"
$ adb shell "chmod 0777 /system/xbin"
$ adb push busybox /system/xbin/
$ adb shell "chmod 755 /system/xbin/busybox"
$ adb shell "chmod 0755 /system/xbin"
  5. Usage of BusyBox
    6. $ busybox ifconfig

Feb28

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14 Responses to “Compile BusyBox On Android OS”

  1. Arie Says:
    July 31, 2011 at 9:11 pm

    perfect site and provide the latest information for the world community. please give comments to my site : http://aboutandroidapps.com/

    thank’s

    Reply
  2. Harish Says:
    November 7, 2011 at 2:21 am

    It was very much helpful .
    I compiled the basybox using the cross-compiler from codesourcery.com.
    But program compiled using “arm-linux-gnueabi-gcc” does not executes in android .It gives Illegal instruction error.If you know the options (arguments) for “arm-linux-gnueabi-gcc” to produce android compatible binary,Please post it

    Thank you for this informative news

    Reply
  3. Building BusyBox from source | JonRichards.net Says:
    January 15, 2012 at 9:36 pm

    [...] http://mobisocial.stanford.edu/news/2011/02/compile-busybox-on-android-os/ [...]

    Reply
  4. Glenn S Says:
    January 22, 2012 at 8:35 am

    My tablets, Kindle fire & Playbook are dull. Where can I see an Android x86 netbook?
    Glenn S (shnkr888 AT aol DOT com)

    Reply
  5. Ashwinee Says:
    January 24, 2012 at 9:16 pm

    Hi, I an trying with “arm-eabi-” toolchain and it is is giving lots of error. Would you tell me what configuration we have to set??

    Reply
  6. VPN Says:
    March 2, 2012 at 3:25 am

    Thanks for the tutorial. I wish you could also create a tutorial using the NDK compiler which I think would be much easier to use. Thank you

    Reply
  7. Best Free VPN Says:
    May 11, 2012 at 11:30 am

    When pushing it to my phone it says

    ‘adb’ is not recognized as an internal or external command,
    operable program or batch file.

    What is wrong?

    Reply
    • hackitboy Says:
      June 8, 2012 at 10:43 am

      Do you have all the android tools installed? If you have it installed, then probably you have not updated your env variable “PATH”.

      Reply
  8. Mitch Says:
    July 14, 2012 at 2:01 am

    I had the problem

    scripts/kconfig/lxdialog/dialog.h:31:20: fatal error: curses.h: No such file or directory

    So I had to install libncurses5-dev on ubuntu.

    Reply
  9. Mitch Says:
    July 14, 2012 at 2:06 am

    I had this problem:

    mitch@ubuntu:~/Downloads/busybox-1.20.2$ make menuconfig
    HOSTCC scripts/kconfig/lxdialog/checklist.o
    HOSTCC scripts/kconfig/lxdialog/inputbox.o
    HOSTCC scripts/kconfig/lxdialog/lxdialog.o
    scripts/kconfig/lxdialog/lxdialog.c: In function ‘j_inputbox’:
    scripts/kconfig/lxdialog/lxdialog.c:192:3: warning: format not a string literal and no format arguments [-Wformat-security]
    HOSTCC scripts/kconfig/lxdialog/menubox.o
    HOSTCC scripts/kconfig/lxdialog/msgbox.o
    HOSTCC scripts/kconfig/lxdialog/textbox.o
    HOSTCC scripts/kconfig/lxdialog/util.o
    HOSTCC scripts/kconfig/lxdialog/yesno.o
    HOSTLD scripts/kconfig/lxdialog/lxdialog
    scripts/kconfig/mconf Config.in
    #
    # using defaults found in /dev/null
    #

    *** End of configuration.
    *** Execute ‘make’ to build the project or try ‘make help’.

    I solved it with:
    sudo apt-get install libncurses5-dev

    Reply
    • Mitch Says:
      July 14, 2012 at 2:07 am

      mitch@ubuntu:~/Downloads/busybox-1.20.2$ make menuconfig
      HOSTCC scripts/kconfig/lxdialog/checklist.o
      In file included from scripts/kconfig/lxdialog/checklist.c:24:0:
      scripts/kconfig/lxdialog/dialog.h:31:20: fatal error: curses.h: No such file or directory
      compilation terminated.
      make[2]: *** [scripts/kconfig/lxdialog/checklist.o] Error 1
      make[1]: *** [menuconfig] Error 2
      make: *** [menuconfig] Error 2

      Reply
  10. eliaspizarro Says:
    February 5, 2013 at 2:43 pm

    how about busybox for x86 phones

    Reply
  11. 扩展busybox-1.21到android4.1.2中使用 | 移动开发（mobile.riaos.com） Says:
    February 16, 2013 at 10:51 pm

    [...]            参考文章：http://mobisocial.stanford.edu/news/2011/02/compile-busybox-on-android-os/ [...]

    Reply
  12. 扩展busybox-1.21到android4.1.2中使用 | architecture（riaos.com） Says:
    February 16, 2013 at 11:21 pm

    [...]            参考文章：http://mobisocial.stanford.edu/news/2011/02/compile-busybox-on-android-os/ [...]

    Reply

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