I'm running a custom rom (CM7.2-RC3-APOCALYPSE-BAREBONE v12-06-12, by itasoulas, based on CM7.2 RC3 by vo-1 v31-05-12) on my Galaxy Ace (GT-S5830D). I'm about to flash a newer version of the custom rom, but I wanted to add Titanium Backup and S2E to the rom, so that my ext partition is mounted automatically after flashing, and Titanium Backup is already on and ready to restore.
I have the apk files for S2E & Titanium, do I just add them to the system/app folder in the rom zip? Or do I put them in the data/app folder, in which case I'd have to create said folder in the rom zip? Please let me know, as it would let me eliminate a whole 2/3 steps in the flash/restore process (flash->install S2E->reboot to mount ext->install Titanium->restore becomes flash->restore).
Any help would be greatly appreciated. I'd post this in the CM7.2-RC3-APOCALYPSE thread, but this is my first post and I'm not allowed to post there yet.
As you can see, I didn't get any response from my post, so I rolled the dice and went for it.
So here's how it works for those who don't know:
To add system apps to a rom, place the apk files in the system/app folder in the zip. If you want the apps installed as user apps, place them in the data/app folder in the zip. Worked like a charm. I flashed, booted, configured S2E (installed w/rom), rebooted, ran Titanium Backup and restored everything.
BTW, I was also able to add the APN info for my carrier into the rom. You can do that by editing the apns-conf file in the system/etc folder in the zip. This is handy because when I flash a custom rom I have no APNs set up, as well as no wireless networks saved, so by doing this I was able to run the initial setup when you first reboot the phone (instead of just skipping it, missing Gapps, and adding my account later).
Hope this helped for anyone who is interested.
Neat. Though I'd likely keep titanium as a user app, I'm definitely going to try this.
Sent from my U8150 using XDA
There is an app to move apps from users space to system space available on the google play. It is called app-mover. It is simple tool. If you are already using link2sd then there is a menu option for moving the apps.
Related
Can some one provide some instructions on how to go about making a CW zip file to flash and install all the apps that is on my phone?
I've seen a few of these floating around in the forum, and wanted to make my own to save time after every ROM flash
Do I just grab all the APK files throw them into a folder and Zip & Sign it?
or do I have to do a Nandroid backup first, then only use the app files from the backup?
I would like to know this too....
Would be nice as well instead of restoring
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA App
Take an existing update.zip type file. Add a folder to it with the full proper path for your apps you want to pre-install (typically this will be /data/app) and put all the apps in that folder. Should look something like this in a windows/mac explorer window:
Code:
META-INF
/com/google/android/updater-script
data
/app/myfirstapp.apk
/app/mysecondapp.apk
Then use a text editor to edit the META-INF/com/google/android/updater-script file to include the commands to copy over your stuff. It would something along the lines of:
Code:
ui_print("Installing New App Files to /data");
package_extract_dir("data", "/data");
Edit out anything in the update template you're working out of that you don't want to happen (ie., format or symlinks, etc).
Repackage the zip file and make sure nothing else got in there by mistake by re-opening it (like those pesky Mac .ds-store files).
You can re-sign it with the android tools, but I don't believe you need to with Clockwork.
I would have a fresh nandroid before testing anything, of course.
You feel this approach is better than just using Titanium to restore apps? You won't get back any app data that isn't stored on the sdcard.
Thanks!
yes, now that makes sense, i recall reading that some where else to add extra APK to the ROMs
so it's the same idea, just without the ROM portion
now i get it
distortedloop said:
Take an existing update.zip type file. Add a folder to it with the full proper path for your apps you want to pre-install (typically this will be /data/app) and put all the apps in that folder. Should look something like this in a windows/mac explorer window:
Code:
META-INF
/com/google/android/updater-script
data
/app/myfirstapp.apk
/app/mysecondapp.apk
Then use a text editor to edit the META-INF/com/google/android/updater-script file to include the commands to copy over your stuff. It would something along the lines of:
Code:
ui_print("Installing New App Files to /data");
package_extract_dir("data", "/data");
Edit out anything in the update template you're working out of that you don't want to happen (ie., format or symlinks, etc).
Repackage the zip file and make sure nothing else got in there by mistake by re-opening it (like those pesky Mac .ds-store files).
You can re-sign it with the android tools, but I don't believe you need to with Clockwork.
I would have a fresh nandroid before testing anything, of course.
You feel this approach is better than just using Titanium to restore apps? You won't get back any app data that isn't stored on the sdcard.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ya essentially this method is doingan advanced nandroid restore for data only except without the settings.
Sent from my MattedBlues CM7 Nexus S from the XDA Premium app.
kenvan19 said:
Ya essentially this method is doingan advanced nandroid restore for data only except without the settings.
Sent from my MattedBlues CM7 Nexus S from the XDA Premium app.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I suppose if you want the app data restored as well, you would just need to identify it's location in the /data directory and add it to the /data folder in the update you're making. Seems like most of the app data goes into /data/data.
Just thinking out loud here...
So for a sample app on my phone I have called jefit pro I'd put the following in the update file.
Code:
/data/je.fit.pro-1.apk <---apk itself
/data/data/je.fit.pro <--the folder
/data/data/je.fit.pro/databases/data
/data/data/je.fit.pro/lib
/data/data/je.fit.pro/preferences/preferences.xml
I'd just pull the whole folder for the /data/data/je.fit.pro from the phone via adb.
I'm not sure how useful putting the data back is, since that's not a static set of files on many apps, but for some apps where the data is just some settings or preference files it may be a nice touch.
I don't really see any advantage to this over just use Titanium to restore apps and data, but it should work.
(<<---- this would be the whole folder and its subfolders that I pulled via adb off the phone)
distortedloop said:
I don't really see any advantage to this over just use Titanium to restore apps and data, but it should work.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
AllGamer, I'm glad you brought this up, while I don't personally have any apps I want to put on the phone in this method, except perhaps titanium itself, I just realized we could of course do the same thing for all those little custom tweaks we put on our phones, like for me I push my personalized ringtones/notification sounds to /system. That's easy enough with adb or rootexplorer, but why not just flash them from a zip while in CW after a wipe or install of a new rom?
distortedloop said:
AllGamer, I'm glad you brought this up, while I don't personally have any apps I want to put on the phone in this method, except perhaps titanium itself, I just realized we could of course do the same thing for all those little custom tweaks we put on our phones, like for me I push my personalized ringtones/notification sounds to /system. That's easy enough with adb or rootexplorer, but why not just flash them from a zip while in CW after a wipe or install of a new rom?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
the idea came up from several places, first Titanium Backup itself offers to create a signed .zip installer for CW
and i've seen other devices forums with people packing up like 100+ apps/tweaks/mods into it to flash after CW is done flashing the new ROM
yes, of course we can use TI, i have TI pro and it's very easy, but Ti is slow.... at restoring 300+ Apps
but everytime i see CW restoring a Zip file or even a full Nandroid backup, it does it so fast and quickly, that i though... hell might as well keep an updated signed .zip wtih all my must have apps, and flash it along right after any new ROM flash (when testing out different Custom ROMs) then i don't need to spend like an hour everytime restoring + configuring the phones
i noticed that Ti works a hell of a lot faster if the apps are already installed, and you only need to restore the data.
and that is the main reason i want to compile a list of all the apps
once they are all installed, then i can use any of the good market utilities that can do mass Apps2SD and i'll be up and running in as quickly as 15min vs. a whole hour waste on a restore/config everytime you change the ROM
using Ti i found most of the System settings can be restored safely without corrupting the new ROM
email
accounts & syncs
bluetooth pairings
wifi
... ah shoot forgot the rest
only do not restore settings for:
launcher,
wireless network (phone company)
android market
and anything that has to do with default settings
probably this weekend i'll dissect the CW zip created by Ti itself, and add more to it
Sounds like a good plan...but you've got 300+ apps if I recall correctly. I imagine that will take a long time to restore either method!
The Titanium update zip is a good place to start. Use the setting to make it a "user" app and it will put it in /data, where you want the rest of your apps as well. You could just dump what you want right into the zip file there in the folder that has titanium's apk itself and not even worry about messing with the updater-script file.
Is it possible to save an app that i downloaded from the market to use at a later date?
Basically I downloaded and use MyBackup Root as my backing up app for my phone which is free from the market and i would like to have that apk on my phone so i can install after i flash a new rom rather than going into the market to have to do it all the time.
Create an update zip that you can flash from recovery, there should be "how-to's"
hanging around.
If not post up your apk and me or someone else will create one for you.
Hope this helps
I always use Titanium Backup to restore apps when I flash new roms. Works flawlessly.
If you have root you can copy the .apk to external memory. If your new rom comes with any kind of file explorer, you just open it and it will install.
-----
N1; CM7.0.nightlies
Hello.Can someone upload the original system apps from Lg p920 (greece-vodafone but I think region doesn't matter ).
I first deleted the apps and then made a backup LOL
+1.
I need them too.
You can download custom rom. Then extract zip and you have apps in system folder.
I tried that with thaiz ROM, copied games nova, asphalt. They don't work. Do I need odex file or I don't know. What could I mess up with those games.first I tried to move data on the external with GL TO SD, then I tried to move game to /data/app with titanium but it freezed. I wanted to copy Golf2 with root explorer to /data/app to find out if it would work with the external sd files. Now all those games won't work, maybe a problem lies somewhere else.
They just open to a black screen and go back to home.
Maybe they need to be flashed in the recovery, before the system boots to make odex files?
This is my first odexed ROM in Android, so I don't know.
just put the games into app folder and set the right permissions. the next time you start the game it asks you for a wifi connection, cause it has to download more data for the game.
Hi all,
In order to show the SMS's sent timestamp, I replaced the system's messaging app with handcent message. I backup all the following apps with Titanium backup, and uninstall them by Titanium uninstalling function.
Conversations.apk
Messaging.apk
MessageWidget.apk
UniversalInbox.apk
But the Titanium backup failed to restore the system messaging app after experiment. When i want to restore the apps referred ahead, the Titanium frozen.
And I extract all the apps from a ROM, and want to restore them by "Systemapp Remover". The remover show success, and i reboot the phone, but nothing changed. and i found in the systemapp remover interface, all the 4 apps' status were "disabled".
I think a backup from a running Atrix 2 will help my restore all the apps.
so does anybody can backup all the four system apps by "Systemapp remover", zip the SD:\SystemAppBack folder, and email the zipped file to me. and i will try restore them.
Thank you in advanced, i do not want to reflash my phone. Thank you in advanced.
my email : [email protected] or [email protected]
First off, you should never uninstall or delete system apps, you should always freeze them, that way if you have a problem and need them later you can just defrost them.
Second, the core phone apps like messaging and dialer should never be frozen or removed, they are needed even by replacement apps such as Handcent.
Third, you can get those apps from any ROM that still has the stock apps such as SCv6 or better yet the Stock Monster which is in the Themes and Apps section. Just download, then unzip the ROM and go to the /system/app folder. If you get it from a de-odexed ROM just grab the apk files, if you get them from an odexed ROM (such as The Stock Monster) make sure you grab both the apk and the odex files for each app.
Lastly, please research before doing things to anything in the /system folder...messing up something there is a sure fire way to get stuck in a bootloop or softbrick.
lilhaiti said:
First off, you should never uninstall or delete system apps, you should always freeze them, that way if you have a problem and need them later you can just defrost them.
Second, the core phone apps like messaging and dialer should never be frozen or removed, they are needed even by replacement apps such as Handcent.
Third, you can get those apps from any ROM that still has the stock apps such as SCv6 or better yet the Stock Monster which is in the Themes and Apps section. Just download, then unzip the ROM and go to the /system/app folder. If you get it from a de-odexed ROM just grab the apk files, if you get them from an odexed ROM (such as The Stock Monster) make sure you grab both the apk and the odex files for each app.
Lastly, please research before doing things to anything in the /system folder...messing up something there is a sure fire way to get stuck in a bootloop or softbrick.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wait! The (now defunct) Stock Monster doesn't have those apps... Try Romulus if you are still on stock odexed, or Remus if you are deodexed - they both have most of the stock apps.
Also, you need the classes.dex file in the deodexed apks, so you couldn't just grab the apks only from the Stock Monster anyway if you are deodexed.
In fact, are you odexed or deodexed? I could throw those apps in a CWM recovery zip real quick for you...
Hi alteredlikeness,
Thank you so much.
but i used systemapp remover instead of recovering the zip file sent by you. But the same, all the 4 apps restored, but status were "disabled" even if rebooting the phone.
I'm wondering whether there was a file recorded the system files' hashing key? so i restore the file with system app remover always fails.
gjgj said:
Hi alteredlikeness,
Thank you so much.
but i used systemapp remover instead of recovering the zip file sent by you. But the same, all the 4 apps restored, but status were "disabled" even if rebooting the phone.
I'm wondering whether there was a file recorded the system files' hashing key? so i restore the file with system app remover always fails.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have no experience with systemapp remover.. did you try to flash the zip through cwm recovery?
My thought is maybe the permissions are not correct.. you can check and change the permissions with root explorer, or use the "fix permissions" option in cwm recovery.
Sent from my phone's mind
alteredlikeness said:
I have no experience with systemapp remover.. did you try to flash the zip through cwm recovery?
My thought is maybe the permissions are not correct.. you can check and change the permissions with root explorer, or use the "fix permissions" option in cwm recovery.
Sent from my phone's mind
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Browse the /system/app/ directory with Root Explorer, all the 8 files permission were correct, and i reboot the phone, but all the apps were still disabled.
Thank all, i had recover all the files from a backup files from the same version. Maybe android will check the system apps' version or MD5 hash.
Hey all,
I'm using the PAC ROM found here. Anytime I dirty flash an update, I lose all my Paranoid Android preferences (DPI, color schemes, etc). I've backed them up with the internal backup, but when I search for the backed up file (in order to try to manually back it up via Dropbox or Drive) I can't find the backup anywhere. I've searched for this file/folder but I can't for the life of me find it. Is there some location, naming, or compression issue that I don't know about that would be inhibiting me from finding the preferences file? Re-doing all my preferences is a huge pain.
Also, I know that dirty flashing is not preferable. I'm familiar with Titanium, but even using that, I feel like I spend a lot of time re-configuring system settings, installing apps that I shouldn't restore with Titanium, etc. Is this the normal hassle associated with updating ROMs, or am I making it harder than it should be?
Thanks in advance!
The file is here:
/system/etc/Paranoid/properties.conf
You'll need to manually drop that in the updated ROM.
Before restoring you need to make sure you don't have the broken Paranoid Preferences (it's the black one). If you do, take ParanoidPreferences.apk from /system/app of your old Pac-Man (make sure it's the white one) and replace the current apk. Restart.
Now you can restore!
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I727 using Tapatalk 2
curiouscrackers said:
The file is here:
/system/etc/Paranoid/properties.conf
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It says that file was last modified a month ago... Are you sure that's it?
curiouscrackers said:
Before restoring you need to make sure you don't have the broken Paranoid Preferences (it's the black one). If you do, take ParanoidPreferences.apk from /system/app of your old Pac-Man (make sure it's the white one) and replace the current apk. Restart.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Which one is this (oh, I can't post links... cool. imgur extension is sjDdwRa.png)? Black PAC on white circle. This is me still on the working ROM install, so if it's black, I don't know what to do...
Thanks for the help!
Any thoughts on dirty flashing the PAC updates in general? Should I not be doing that?
Here, http://db.tt/SgpYcZ8a. This is a working ParanoidPreferences.apk. Drop it in /system/app replacing the existing one (don't forget make a copy first if you want a backup). Make sure to change it's permissions to match the other files in this directory. Restart.
This will allow you to make and restore backups, as well as adjust per-app settings without being in landscape. If you dirty flashed then you should be able to restore your backups. If not, you'll have to restore a nandroid to get the config file...
Backups can be found in /data/data/something (I'm going by memory here). The file names are something like 20130321.conf
Or
The current config file is in /system/etc/Paranoid and is called properties.conf
Copy one of these and drop it into /system/etc/Paranoid of your current Pac ROM. If it's one of your backups rename it properties.conf. Change the permissions and restart. Your phone should boot with the settings already in place.
Edit.
I'm sorry, I didn't see before where you said you were on the working ROM. Then just do the first part (replace the apk), then go into paranoid and do a backup. After updating, replace the apk again and you should be able to restore. If you do a clean flash you will still need to copy the config file.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I727 using Tapatalk 2
Victory! I wasn't able to overwrite the apk with ES File Explorer due to folder permissions, but $4 Root Explorer did the trick.
Thanks very much for your help!