Search code examples
androidadbrootandroid-5.0-lollipoptrace

Unknown permission android.permission.ACCESS_SUPERUSER in package com.powervr.PVRHub

While trying to utilise PVRHub Imagination tool for OpenGL ES tracing I meet a problems dealing with it. First APK launch gives warning about

unknown permission android.permission.ACCESS_SUPERUSER

and notification message about disabling to get root access (see details below):

Logcat outputs related to the issue:

W/PackageManager( 1083): Unknown permission android.permission.ACCESS_SUPERUSER in package com.powervr.PVRHub
...
E/PVRHub  (18453): Your device does not have a Superuser.apk. 
E/PVRHub  (18453): In order to run PVRHub you'll need to launch the PVRHubDaemon manually and relaunch PVRHub. 
E/PVRHub  (18453): Run: # chmod 0777 /data/data/com.powervr.PVRHub/bin/PVRHubDaemon; /data/data/com.powervr.PVRHub/bin/PVRHubDaemon &

Android notification which are released after first APK launch:

Unable to get root access! Is Superuser.apk installed?

Check Logcat for more details.

PVRHub out.

However the situation is a bit tricky in case that it is engineering OS version (Android 5.0 to be exactly) and both commands as adb root so as adb shell indicate that device have to rooted already.

So I have two questions:

  1. Does anybody successfully use PVRTrace within PVRHub in Android 5.0 (or pre-5.0 OS version)?

  2. How does one deal with issues related to granting root access to devices which have to be rooted already (without untrusted software installation)?

Any help as for first so as for second subquestion will be appreciated.

Note: Samsung Galaxy S4 is used. This can be related to Samsung security (Samsung Knox) issue.

Solution

  • android.permission.ACCESS_SUPERUSER is a permission declared by the Superuser app, but in Android 5.0 onward it was deprecated. http://su.chainfire.eu/#updates-permission

    old AndroidManifest back when it was defined: https://github.com/koush/Superuser/blob/976c7df74c09559d50cb91e0edf924bd4d5c7aa0/Superuser/AndroidManifest.xml . The permission is missing from newer versions it seems.

    This means that in order to have that permissions exist on your device, you need to install an old Superuser version which has that permissions.