Installing apps via ROM's /system/apps

[Guest sto1911]

I do not know if this has been asked but I have several must-have apps which I usually put into system/apps to get them installed during first boot.

This is what I've done with many ROMs but many (none?) of them got installed, however, when I install them one by one they work as designed. Can anyone help me?

[Guest elinx]

As an addition on this:

Have you tried to add (removable) applications in data/app

[Guest Hpman48]

I do not know if this has been asked but I have several must-have apps which I usually put into system/apps to get them installed during first boot.

This is what I've done with many ROMs but many (none?) of them got installed, however, when I install them one by one they work as designed. Can anyone help me?

Really good question, removing apps from custom roms or replacing with newer version works (mostly) but how can i add new system apps?

Hpman48

[Guest sto1911]

As an addition on this:

Have you tried to add (removable) applications in data/app

When installing manually sw is placed under /data and consumes userspace. However /system is the systemspace which has about 80MB free by default...

[Guest sto1911]

Really good question, removing apps from custom roms or replacing with newer version works (mostly) but how can i add new system apps?

Hpman48

this is the method you are looking for: either place apps into the zip, or use Rootexplorer on a running system and then reboot.

[Guest elinx]

... systemspace which has about 80MB free by default...

Thanks for your explination. How can I see how much space there is and what happens if I fill the system/app in the zip to much.

[Guest sto1911]

Thanks for your explination. How can I see how much space there is and what happens if I fill the system/app in the zip to much.

Install a terminal (needs root) or use adb to issue the command:

df

which will show you disk usage.

If the ROM doesn't fit into the space the update will fail or the device won't boot anymore and a reflash will be needed.

Edited January 13, 2011 by sto1911

[Guest sto1911]

No ideas?

I created an update.zip with the apps I need, signed it then installed via CW. Most of the apps worked but some FCd. I reinstalled these apps manually then they worked...

Am I missing something?

[Guest sto1911]

Recently I have found out that apps placed under system/app must have permission rw-r--r--. This way they seem to get installed however, they FC. I investigated further and the app. manager says an incorrect app size.

[Guest wbaw]

With the apps that force close, you're missing the lib files. Open the apk files in your favourite zip program & extract the files from lib/armeabi put these in your phone's /system/lib directory. If there's no lib directory in the apk, then you don't need to do that.

[Guest sto1911]

Thanks mate, this helped!

However, I have two questions:

- if all apps use the same libs, then it is easy to extract from one, put into the ROM zip, flash, and then 'system apps' can be added easily later. What if other files are missing as well?

- how can I automate this process if the previous point fails?

[Guest sto1911]

Thanks mate, this helped!

However, I have two questions:

- if all apps use the same libs, then it is easy to extract from one, put into the ROM zip, flash, and then 'system apps' can be added easily later. What if other files are missing as well?

- how can I automate this process if the previous point fails?

Let me just answer myself.

I did a test with 13 randomly chosen apps.

Those which FCd have been decompiled and their lib files have been put on the phone and they started to work charmingly.

I think time will tell if any apps need different files than libs.