Hi guys,
I have just been playing around with the idea of hosting a webserver on my machine that my phone could connect to to download apk files after performing a wipe.
Iv been thinking about this as everytime i wipe my phone i connect back to the market and download appmanager to install apps direct from sd. So instead of having to do that im looking at having them all in a directory on my PC/Flashdrive (as this will be portable) using XAMPP.
Before any gets any wrong ideas this is not intended for any illegal doings. Its just to make my life easier. I thought i would share what i have started to see if this will help out anyone else.
So far i have it working (very rough). But i dont know any coding so this is a bit of a hack job.
I am using XAMPP as stated aswell as a PHP script that will automaticly populate the page will all files within a particular folder.
I have attached the index file i am using.
if you wish to use this please make sure you do a few things.
Install XAMPP
From where you installed XAMPP. In the HTDOCS folder create a "APK" Folder
Place the index.php in the HTDOCS folder
Edit the index.php file to change the path of the APK folder (currently set to D:\\Dream\\xampp\\htdocs\\APK) keep the double slashes "\\"
Start the Apache webserver from the XAMPP control panel
Now connect to Localhost, any files you place in that folder should now appear
Anyone wishing to use this, edit this, whatever you feel like. Go ahead
If you would like to help and change the look and feel of the page it would be greatly appreciated. If you do post the files back up here for all to use
Hope you guys like
Can I ask why you wouldn't just backup your apps to your sdcard (use something like MyBackup) and be done with it?
You can always copy them from your sdcard to your flash drive (and back from flash drive to sdcard temporarily if you need to re-install).
I'm all for experimenting, learning and even playing around a lot. But this seems like overkill. First off, your apps will surely get outdated quickly, and you'll end up upgrading lots of apps. You'll end up spending an enormous amount of time managing your own local library.
Personally, I think you're wasting your time unless your trying to learn how to do something in the process. Maybe you are, and in that case, go for it. Otherwise, enjoy your phone and let the Market do the management for you.
Or you can just have all your .apk's in a folder and use adb to install all of em at once. But like the above post you might have to get updates for alot of em.
This is a little tool I put together after a post I made on the Rom Customizer thread.
This is only for linux only at the moment, but its simple enough that i may be able to get a batch file for you windows guys.
it comes with everything needed-including the option to install java if you dont have it
What it does is this
1. pulls the specified apk
2. takes a baskup -you can restore to the backup by running the restore script.
3. replaces an image file in drawable-mdpi with the one you provide.
4. re-zips and re-signs the app
5.pushes the app back to either /system or /data
this has only been tested on pre-installed app, ie no market apps.
Its pretty simple but it could be helpful, so let me know what you think.
Extract the working folder to your desktop please.
I was wondering how to make a system apk such as idk the browser into a regular installable apk so that someone with no knowledge of pushing apks can install it along side their apk.
Generally system apps are just normal apps, only installed on a system partition. If you pull a system apk from a device, then you should be able to install it normally on any other device.
There are exceptions from this rule:
You can't install an app if you have it installed already. Many system apps are installed on most devices by default and this is the reason, why you can't install e.g. Browser.apk pulled from other device - most probably you have it installed already.
There are 2 solutions: you could remove system app before installation of new one or just replace it - but this isn't what you want. To create normal, installable apk you would have to modify its package name as I did with Google Maps.
Some system apps use system internals, private APIs or privileges, some additional libraries, etc. For example Settings.apk changes internal settings of OS - you can't do that in normal apk.
You can't easily move/install such apps, they're integrated with system.
thanks for this long great reply. So lets say I pulled my dialer apk changed the package name, could I install it on a friends phone NOT on the system partition ?
I'm trying to pull the dialer apk from gingerbread and port it into a normal apk using apk tool, but once and changed the package name and all that and compile it I go to install it on my phone but it says that it could not open it as an apk file. Any ideas?
Newklearx3 said:
thanks for this long great reply. So lets say I pulled my dialer apk changed the package name, could I install it on a friends phone NOT on the system partition ?
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Click to collapse
I think not. Note that Phone.apk is only one app that can dial, you can't add such feature to your own app, so most probably it uses private APIs to do that. It's integrated-with-system one. Same for Settings.apk and PackageManager.apk, but you should be able to pull Browser.apk, Launcher.apk, MMS.apk, Gmail.apk, Talk.apk, etc., change their package name and install on another device.
Ahh, there is one more group: SenseUI, Motoblur, etc. apps, which use additional framework resources: images, colors, texts. They won't work on a device lacking this framework, but it should be possible to make these apps framework-independent by copying all dependencies to app itself. Not that easy, but possible
Brut.all said:
I think not. Note that Phone.apk is only one app that can dial, you can't add such feature to your own app, so most probably it uses private APIs to do that. It's integrated-with-system one. Same for Settings.apk and PackageManager.apk, but you should be able to pull Browser.apk, Launcher.apk, MMS.apk, Gmail.apk, Talk.apk, etc., change their package name and install on another device.
Ahh, there is one more group: SenseUI, Motoblur, etc. apps, which use additional framework resources: images, colors, texts. They won't work on a device lacking this framework, but it should be possible to make these apps framework-independent by copying all dependents to app itself. Not that easy, but possible
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Click to collapse
Dude, you're amazing! So how would I go about porting the gingerbread dialer to workable installable apk?
I might be doing something wrong but I pulled the launcher and changed the package name and still the same error
Okay, i guess I'm not. I copied the apk ( unmodded ) from the rom zip and placed it on my SD card to install it and the same error, so there must be something wrong.
figured out it was the sdk version, got it to show up but wont install now.
im also interested in porting specific development apk, lets say.. CM Settings into a non Cyanogen. Tried that once by pulling CM*.apk and push it to other non Cyanogen but got cant be installed message.. any hints on this?
phoezies said:
im also interested in porting specific development apk, lets say.. CM Settings into a non Cyanogen. Tried that once by pulling CM*.apk and push it to other non Cyanogen but got cant be installed message.. any hints on this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Use logcat as a start to see dependencies
XDA App
I have some friends that want me to install Phiremod onto their Nook Colors. What is the easiest way for me to install free apps in bulk without using the market? I thought it would be cool to have a bunch of free apps loaded on it for them so they don't have to install them all manually. Thanks!
Either push them with adb as a data/app folder or my preferred method....Open the rom with 7zip pre-flashing and just copy the apk's over.
hockeyfamily737 said:
Either push them with adb as a data/app folder or my preferred method....Open the rom with 7zip pre-flashing and just copy the apk's over.
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Cool. I'll try that. But where is a safe place to legally obtain the free apps as .apk files?
I'd like that info too
OK guys. There are a couple of ways I do this. You can download any rom for any device, open it up and pull the .apk's you want out of it, you can find them on your android phone and transfer them to your Nook, and you can find a lot of good ones right here on XDA. I have a whole library of apps that I've saved over the last couple of years. They're all backed up on my computer andf my dropbox account. Let me know if there is anything in particular you're looking for if I have it I'll share.
I have at last a working 2.3.5 Android on my U8800 Pro. But, I want to clean up the bundled applications that I do not need. In order to do so, I want to find out which apks as well as what other changes I need to do in order to clean up those apps. I know that this is in the http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1420728 thread, but I want more details for more applications.
What I want to know is:
I suppose that it is not just enough to remove the apk file from the /system/apps/<appname>.apk , is it? If not, what other actions must I perform?
Should I remove the relevant lines from the /system/filelist.lst file?
Where are the application's temporary/user data stored? In /data/data? Should I remove them too?
If I move the /system/app/<file>.apk to /data/app/<file>.apk, how can I stop the application from starting during boot-up in the first place?
Important note: I will not root the phone. Everything will be performed from the pink screen and the mounting of /dev/sd?{12,13} on my Linux box.
In my B521 setup the APKs that I need your help in order to understand what applications or services/widgets are represent, are:
OMACP.apk
ApkBatchInstall.apk
GenieWidget.apk
DeskClock.apk
DownloadProvider.apk
DownloadProviderUI.apk
HwOUC.apk
MagicSmokeWallpapers.apk
MyCalendar.apk
MyRichpad.apk
RichPad.apk
Service-MultiSNS.apk
SocialExt.apk
SmartcardService.apk
RichPad.apk
UpdaterSolutionEx.apk
What information I am looking for is something like this:
Gallery3D.apk: The image gallery application.
PicoTts.apk: Pico Text-to-Speech
Please for your help. After that list is completed, I will write a list of all applications (apks) that are bundled and how to remove them, I promise