I'm attempting some Android system integration on a BeagleBoard like device. I have complete file system access as I can read/write/format the CF card hosting the boot and rootfs partitions. For example, I can easily modify init.rc to execute arbitrary commands during the device bootup.
Based on this, how can I enable root access for the user on the device? If that's not possible, how can I setup dropbear SSH (or any other service) such that it runs with root privileges? z4root does not work, and I'm sure there must be a better method given complete file system access. This is Android 2.2 (Froyo) for what it's worth.
Modifying the default.prop file to set ro.secure to 0 will let the adb shell run as root as it typically does on the emulator or a development device.
Because it's not a case envisioned by the android architects, solutions that give you root "some of the time" "for some purposes" as you might find on a desktop linux box are not necessarily well developed, but you may be able to borrow something from the sources of one of the community roms such as cyanogen.