Notes

How to upgrade Samsung Gear Live Watch

12 Feb 2016

This post is about my journey on upgrading a Samsung Gear Live Watch purchased on Amazon. The OS was 5.0.1, and my goal was to upgrade its OS to Android 5.1.1. Perhaps because the onstock system image was a developer version, the default Update button does not give me an update. I tried many times to install a customized system image, but adb sideload filename.zip does not work (due to an error:closed error), forbidding me to load any external file onto the watch to install. Fianlly, I used Samsung Gear Live Restore Tool V2 from xda and reversed to a system image that allows automatic system upgrade and then upgraded from there. Here are the steps.

  1. Search and download the restore tool.
  2. Unzip, pre-process the files. Since the developer of this tool (a shell script called 2-Gear-Live-Tool-for-Linux-and-OSX.sh) used a Windows development environment, I had to use dos2unix 2-Gear-Live-Tool-for-Linux-and-OSX.sh to convert the bash script file to a Unix-friendly one. Also, the script calls a few binaries which are included in the same zip file. For convenience, I just did chmod +x * for everything in the folder so that the binaries will have execution permissions.
  3. Bug. Due to some reason (perhaps dos2unix), one image file is mal-named in the script. Open the script and search for 78yrecovery, and change it to 78Yrecovery.
  4. Boot the android watch into bootloader. This can be done either using adb reboot bootloader (if the watch's debugging interface is enabled) or reboot the device (by holding the power button) and swipe twice from top left to bottom right when the Samsung logo shows up (tip: this is easier to do when the power cable is disconnected).
  5. Execute the shell script, and type restore. Follow the instructions in the script.

Only the V2 of the Restore Tool worked for me. After the restoration, the watch's OS reversed to Android 4.4W. Select System Update in the Settings and download/upgrade the system. The watch will then update to Android 4.4W-2. Repeat the process, update the system to 5.0.1 and then 5.1.1. Voila!

How to solve adb devices no permission error

Very often, when we connect a new device to the developer machine, we might encounter no permission error when we do adb devices, and even adb kill-server might not help. If the device's developer option is enabled, the error is most likely caused by the developer machine's udev settings. Here is how I solved it.

  1. Connect the device to the machine via USB.
  2. Check lsusb and find the entry related to the device. Look for keywords like Samsung or Google. One way to find out the usb info of the device is to disconnect and reconnect it and see the difference in the output. For example, here is a sample output without connecting: 
$ lsusb
Bus 002 Device 004: ID 148f:5370 Ralink Technology, Corp. RT5370 Wireless Adapter
Bus 002 Device 003: ID 046d:0825 Logitech, Inc. Webcam C270
Bus 002 Device 002: ID 8087:0024 Intel Corp. Integrated Rate Matching Hub
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 8087:0024 Intel Corp. Integrated Rate Matching Hub
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 003 Device 003: ID 046d:c52b Logitech, Inc. Unifying Receiver
Bus 003 Device 002: ID 2516:0004  
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub

And here is the output with the device connected: 

$ lsusb
Bus 002 Device 004: ID 148f:5370 Ralink Technology, Corp. RT5370 Wireless Adapter
Bus 002 Device 003: ID 046d:0825 Logitech, Inc. Webcam C270
Bus 002 Device 002: ID 8087:0024 Intel Corp. Integrated Rate Matching Hub
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 020: ID 18d1:4ee7 Google Inc. 
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 8087:0024 Intel Corp. Integrated Rate Matching Hub
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 003 Device 003: ID 046d:c52b Logitech, Inc. Unifying Receiver
Bus 003 Device 002: ID 2516:0004  
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub

Observe the difference:

Bus 001 Device 020: ID 18d1:4ee7 Google Inc.

Now edit the udev file at

$ sudo vi /etc/udev/rules.d/51-android.rules

And add this line:

# Samsung Gear Live
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTR{idVendor}=="18d1", ATTR{idProduct}=="4ee7", MODE="0600", OWNER="user1"

where user1 is my username.

Restart udev:

$ sudo udevadm control --reload-rules
$ sudo service udev restart

Now we can find that the device can be properly recognized by adb (and a permission confirmation might prompt on the device).

$ adb devices
List of devices attached
R3AF600RD4Kdevice

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