Android "Smart"phone as external drive with Porteus?

[Rava]

Thanks aus9, this once again shows me that knwong Linux for years not helps that much when being a Newbie with Android...

Me thinks, when I have the time (and currently I have not, I try to be outside as long as the weather is non rainy and warm enough for sport climbing or via ferrata going)... I will set up my Galaxy with a complete new system, rooted,without bloatware and such... and then, changes are good that more works out of the box than with the current system.
And why waste time and effort to get a buggy / firmware-outdated system to run when you plan to set it up anew anyway...

[aus9]

OK when you have time, try a APK first instead of rooting using the cable method. Once rooted ensure you have installed a custom recovery, I use TWRP and ensure you have backed up your IMEI and all system. TWRP can do all that

try APK to gain root
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthr ... ?t=2793071

try custom recovery
http://teamw.in/Devices/

Be aware that network providers tend to flash their own firmware onto your phone before letting you rent it or buy it.
but not all. If you are not sure what your device is, what to do etc I suggest you read XDA forum.

2) Also be aware you may have a system upgrade via Over the Air (OTA) so pay attention to your build number and Android version number. YMMV

rooted,without bloatware and such.

Once rooted and after you have done a full backup thru TWRP, install a root brower, you can then get access to your system APKs but research which ones to safely delete. There are gotchas lurking away. Yes I have bricked a device so make no claims of being a guru

[Rava]

try custom recovery
http://teamw.in/Devices/

Searching for my exact machine, "Samsung Galaxy S4 I9515" gave no results.

Be aware that network providers tend to flash their own firmware onto your phone before letting you rent it or buy it.

I bought mine in a shop, free of any branding. So there should be no custom provider branding on it, like, at all.

This is the HOWTO I want to follow, use ooggle translate to read it:
http://www.android-hilfe.de/thema/anlei ... x0.660186/

Also be aware you may have a system upgrade via Over the Air (OTA) so pay attention to your build number and Android version number. YMMV

Like I said, I want to follow the above quoted Howto from android-hilfe.de ...

Once rooted and after you have done a full backup thru TWRP, install a root brower, you can then get access to your system APKs but research which ones to safely delete. There are gotchas lurking away. Yes I have bricked a device so make no claims of being a guru

Like I said, TWRP not has an entry on my exact machine, the Samsung Galaxy S4 I9515 ...

Still, I would feel more safe if I knew how to make a full backup prior starting all that, but so far I have no clue how to do so...
They say in this thread I should use Samsung Smart Switch... which is available for Windoze and MacOS, quite ironic in my book since Android is a Linux, so then why ignore Linux as PC OS?

[aus9]

This is the HOWTO I want to follow

they assume readers are windows users. You do not need PC connection to root old phones like yours
OOPS it looks like it came out in 2014 so not so old. In Australia we are up to S6 so got mislead abit with S4

See your spoiler for section II yet?
It mentions Towelroot and the URL but there is an easier way OK

This post is just to root (or try to root your device)

Don't connect to PC for these instructions please.

1 download APK using your phone web browser go to either https://towelroot.com/ or copy and paste this download link into your Android device or click on next link
https://towelroot.com/tr.apk

If you chose to go to website you will click on the lamda symbol.

2 Go into system setting (hopefully) security and enable unknown sources, because we are using an APK outside playstore.

3 go to normal file manager for your web browser downloads, not sure where that is for Samsung so either its internal storage or removeable sdcard.

4 click on the tr.apk and let it try to root your phone.

Either it will give a message that it succeeds but may need a reboot or it will says it fails.

5 whether it worked or not, disable unknown sources to make your phone slightly safer

good luck