Some apk's is installed in /data/app folder and sometimes not. Is this because there is /system/app/ and also search path? I ask this because the /data partition is very expensive and I want to avoid badly written apk's.
/data/app is the default location for installed APKs. The only exceptions are system apps, which are in /system/app/ and commercial apps from the Play store.
PS: Can anyone find anything on where these commercial apps are stored? Am I even right about that? Think I read it somewhere, but cannot find anything now...
Related
Assuming rooted access, what's the best way to make an Android app reinstall itself using a different package name?
GameGuardian does this to avoid detection by other software. AFAIK, the normal way to do this on a PC is to
Decompile the apk using something like apktool.
Make changes in the decompiled files.
Recompile the apk and sign it.
I'm aware that the apk files for an installed app are present in /data/app and can be accessed on a rooted device. My question is, does the app need to automate all of the above steps(making apktool run, modifying decompiled files using something like sed and finding a way to sign the recompiled apk on the device) or am I missing a trick somewhere?
Just being curious to know, if it is possible to run any .apk file on my device while the apk file is hosted on a cloud server.
Being curious and thinking of an idea, if it happens? Thanks.
No, the APK has to be installed to be run, for conventional definitions of the term "run". You can download the APK from "the cloud" and prompt the user to install it, though.
I have been building a custom ROM and I added some pre-build apk's to this ROM.
When I actually flash the ROM I do see that those new "system apps" are preinstalled.
Still I was wondering about the location of the installation?
When I search on the net everyone actually refers to /system/apps/ as the location, and yes the precompiled .apk files are there. Still it's just an apk, a compressed file not an installed app.
Normally when I install an app it's resources/files are placed under /data/data.
So now I would like to know where a pre-build system app gets installed?
In my specific example I actually ship some binaries and some scripts (as assets) with my app, which when being installed as a non-system app, can simply be found under /data/data/my.app.name/bin
The funny thing is that when I start the app after it has been supplied as a system app in my ROM it will actually be able to see the supplied script files, yet when I search for those I cannot find them!
Just curious if anyone knows how a system app installation actually works, what are the performed actions, why can I only find the .apk and not the "decompressed" installation directory?
I want to make my own application as a preinstalled android application.
To accompolish this
I tried to push in my app apk in /system/app folder but could not able to do. First i mounted r/w permission for /system/app folder using adb shell commands but that also i am not able to do.
Is anyone have ideas.
how to solve this issue?
Advance thanks for any help.
First of all you must root your phone to do that !
Now You are trying to pack your app as system application. classes.dex files are ripped from system applications and saved as optimized ODEX files. So before setting up, you should convert APK files to DEX to ODEX and then put it in system folder.
You can get more information about ODEX/DEX here.
You can directly install apk by adding them into system/app folder after gaining the root access on device. ODEX files would be best choice for developing system apps. Samsung, htc and many more companies use it to deliver their custom pre-installed apps.
I'm trying to copy some apk's of installed apps from my Milestone with FroyoMod installed.
While some apk's are in /system/data after installation, others are not there and I couldn't find any other directory where they are.
How to find out?
Sure the above is true but sounds difficult. FX Files manager with the root addin installed correctly, will allow you to brows and delele/rename.
I guess I solved it:
The Astro file manager I used to look for the apk's shows me empty /data/app directory.
However after connecting through adb, I see the apk's there and can also copy them with the shell.