fastboot and adb not working with sudo

Question

I have a very weird issue on my Ubuntu machine when trying to run the fastboot command.

When I run:

fastboot devices

I get

no permissions   fastboot

So I run the command with adminidtrator permissions:

sudo fastboot devices

And then I get the result

sudo: fastboot: command not found

How can this be? I have the directory in my PATH and everything works correctly without sudo.

Solution 1

Instead of forcing permissions via sudo each time you need to run fastboot, you can permanently fix the issue:

1. use lsusb to identify your device USB VendorID
2. configure udev to set proper permissions when your device is plugged in
3. profit!

As a bonus - it will be fixed for adb too.

For example, in my case (for 'Megafon SP-A20i') :

$ fastboot devices
no permissions  fastboot
$ sudo fastboot devices
[sudo] password for kaa: 
MedfieldA9055F28    fastboot
$ 

Let's fix:

First, we need to identify the device:

a) look for usb bus number (hack: I know the device is Intel-based one)

$ fastboot -l devices
no permissions         fastboot usb:1-1.2
$ lsusb |grep 001 |grep -i intel
Bus 001 Device 044: ID 8087:09ef Intel Corp. 
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 8087:0020 Intel Corp. Integrated Rate Matching Hub
$ 

b) look for other Intel devices:

$ lsusb |grep 8087
Bus 002 Device 002: ID 8087:0020 Intel Corp. Integrated Rate Matching Hub
Bus 001 Device 044: ID 8087:09ef Intel Corp. 
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 8087:0020 Intel Corp. Integrated Rate Matching Hub
$ 

Hubs are not smartphones definetely, so - USB vendorID we need is "8087".

Second, configure udev (you must replace "idVendor" value with yours) :

$ sudo sh -c "echo '# Megafon SP-A20i' >> /etc/udev/rules.d/51-android.rules"
$ sudo sh -c "echo 'SUBSYSTEM==\"usb\", ATTR{idVendor}==\"8087\", MODE=\"0666\", GROUP=\"plugdev\"' >> /etc/udev/rules.d/51-android.rules"
$ sudo service udev restart
udev stop/waiting
udev  start/running, process 1821
$ 

Third, re-plug your device to allow udev to perform it's magic.

Final check:

$ fastboot -l devices
MedfieldA9055F28       fastboot usb:1-1.2
$ adb devices
List of devices attached 

$ fastboot reboot
rebooting...

finished. total time: 0.253s
$ sleep 90
$ adb devices
List of devices attached 
MedfieldA9055F28    device

$ 

Voila!

Solution 2

You can use

sudo $(which fastboot) devices

Comments

[nlmm01]

Thanks. Worked like a charm. How can I fix this though? To work normally as "sudo fastboot devices"?

[elichai2]

Please don't use sudo as an answer. running as root is really bad if it isn't necessary.

[Danuofr]

Thanks this worked, but the line with "lsusb |grep 001 |grep -i intel" messed me up because i was trying to add a nexus 5x phone which is a google phone. So I omitted the "|grep -i intel" part and used "lsusb | grep 001" only and it gave me a full list that showed my nexus 5x device. 'Bus 001 Device 015: ID 18d1:d00d Google Inc." I then used 18d1 in place of 8087 and it worked

[anutter]

sudo is an impersonation of root, not root. If they advocated su then I could see your point. sudo is the way almost all commands are run in Linux, not sure what the obsession is with not using it for fastboot..