The most common term to popup while checking out rooting techniques or ROM flashing tutorials, or anything related to tweaking your phone around is ADB and Fastboot. In the simplest terms, these are two different modes in your android device which lets your phone communicate with your PC. If you are into rooting and hacking, then you must be familiar with the terminology. But for the beginners, let’s get to know what they are and how they come into play while tweaking your phone.
ADB
ADB stands for Android Debug Bridge. As the name suggests, it is a bridge through which Android Developers debug their Android applications, or it can be called a method of communicating or modifying your Android Device through a Command Line Interface.You will require a specific set of drivers to Use ADB.
Basic ADB Commands
adb devices: With this command, you will receive an overview of all devices connected to the computer device with ADB support.
adb reboot: reboots your smartphone
adb reboot recovery: reboots your device into recovery mode
adb reboot bootloader: reboots into the bootloader. Once it is in this mode, you can communicate with the device via the fastboot command.
adb install [source.apk] : Remotely install APKs on your phone.
Fastboot
Fastboot is also similar to ADB but, we give commands to the android device via the bootloader. In fastboot mode, instructions given are written to your devices flash memory, which means you can modify system files, through fastboot. It means you can flash recoveries or any image file that is compatible.All this can be done over a USB connection.
Basic Fastboot Commands
fastboot devices: With this command, you will receive an overview of all devices connected to the computer device with fastboot support.
fastboot oem unlock: Unlock your bootloader, making root access possible.
fastboot devices: Check connection and get basic information about devices connected to the computer.
fastboot flash recovery: Flash a custom recovery image to your phone.
Mostly ADB and Fastboot are used for development purposes, so the drivers usually come with the ANDROID SDK package. But now since most users use it for rooting and flashing recoveries, it has become quite common, and downloading the whole SDK package for that is not practical.
For all those, Android enthusiasts out there, we bring to you a minimal package which just installs the ADB and Fastboot drivers. This was made possible by shimp208 (XDA developers). All credits go to him.
Features
- Minimal – Only installs ADB and fastboot
- Small size (just around 1mb ) compared to Android SDK (close to 500mb)
- Easy Installation
Pre-Requisites
Please have the USB drivers of your phone installed, so that the installation package correctly recognizes your phone and installs drivers accordingly.
This installation package is for Windows only (32 and 64bit)
Make sure that USB debugging is enabled on your phone.
Downloads
Minimal ADB and Fastboot V1.42
Installation
1. Unzip the downloaded file to any Location
2. Run the executable file and follow steps accordingly
3. Select location to install ( Default location is C:/Program Files)
You have successfully installed Minimal ADB and Fastboot drivers.You can now start tweaking and flashing your device, but only after you’ve learned enough, not to damage your device.
