I want to implement a silent installer-from-apk-file and unistaller-package in Android. The topic has largely been discussed on SO and elsewhere but I can't apply any for some reason that I'm missing. The scope is obviously hard to achieve because, if successful, it would be a serious security breach in Android. BUT, I need to implement it for a special project, not for the consumer market. There are two approaches:
For the first case, I digged into the Froyo source code but got into a dead end with a @hide marked method. For the second I've first tried the commands from the terminal
adb shell pm install /mnt/sdcard/HelloAndroid.apk
and
adb shell pm uninstall com.example.helloandroid
Both work OK. Then, I used the following code, the development being tested on a rooted emulator (2.2 - Froyo):
@Override
public void onClick(View v) {
switch (v.getId())
{
case R.id.btnInstall:
try {
install = Runtime.getRuntime().exec("su\n");
DataOutputStream os = new DataOutputStream(install.getOutputStream());
os.writeBytes("pm install /mnt/sdcard/HelloAndroid.apk\n");
os.writeBytes("exit\n");
os.flush();
install.waitFor();
if (install.exitValue() == 0) {
Toast.makeText(MainActivity.this, "Success!", Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();
}
else {
Toast.makeText(MainActivity.this, "Failure. Exit code: "+String.valueOf(install.exitValue()), Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();
}
}
catch (InterruptedException e) {
logError(e);
}
catch (IOException e) {
logError(e);
}
break;
case R.id.btnUninstall:
try {
install = Runtime.getRuntime().exec("su\n");
install=Runtime.getRuntime().exec("pm uninstall "+txtPackageName.getText().toString()+"\n");
} catch (Exception e) {
logError(e);
}
break;
}
}
To avoid typos and other trims I hardcoded the apk file parameter of the command for the installation; on 'case R.id.btnInstall' the command is not executed and the exit is on "Failure" with exit value 1, meaning that "the class cannot be found"; no clue what that means ... I appreciate your help!
EDITED: I have the clean solution, I shall post the answer from A-Z as soon as I have the time and the code in the right form!!
As I promised here is the solution to this problem, without doing any forcing to the system other than having to install the whole application in the /system/app directory. I have followed, then did some fixing to the excellent article here: http://paulononaka.wordpress.com/2011/07/02/how-to-install-a-application-in-background-on-android/. I have downloaded the zip file referenced in the article then, (I tried to keep the same class names where possible):
package com.example.silentinstuninst;
import java.io.File;
import java.lang.reflect.InvocationTargetException;
import com.example.instuninsthelper.ApplicationManager;
import com.example.instuninsthelper.OnDeletedPackage;
import com.example.instuninsthelper.OnInstalledPackage;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.os.Environment;
import android.app.Activity;
import android.util.Log;
import android.view.View;
import android.view.View.OnClickListener;
import android.widget.Button;
import android.widget.EditText;
import android.widget.Toast;
public class MainActivity extends Activity implements OnClickListener {
Process install;
Button btnInstall, btnUninstall;
EditText txtApkFileName, txtPackageName;
public static final String TAG = "SilentInstall/Uninstall";
private static ApplicationManager am;
@Override
public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);
initializeValues();
}
private void initializeValues() {
btnInstall = (Button) findViewById(R.id.btnInstall);
btnUninstall = (Button) findViewById(R.id.btnUninstall);
txtApkFileName = (EditText) findViewById(R.id.txtApkFilePath);
txtPackageName = (EditText) findViewById(R.id.txtPackageName);
btnInstall.setOnClickListener(this);
btnUninstall.setOnClickListener(this);
try {
am = new ApplicationManager(this);
am.setOnInstalledPackage(new OnInstalledPackage() {
public void packageInstalled(String packageName, int returnCode) {
if (returnCode == ApplicationManager.INSTALL_SUCCEEDED) {
Log.d(TAG, "Install succeeded");
} else {
Log.d(TAG, "Install failed: " + returnCode);
}
}
});
am.setOnDeletedPackage(new OnDeletedPackage() {
public void packageDeleted(boolean succeeded) {
Log.d(TAG, "Uninstall succeeded");
}
});
} catch (Exception e) {
logError(e);
}
}
private void logError(Exception e) {
e.printStackTrace();
Toast.makeText(this, R.string.error+e.getMessage(), Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();
}
@Override
public void onClick(View v) {
switch (v.getId())
{
case R.id.btnInstall:
// InstallUninstall.Install(txtApkFileName.getText().toString());
try {
am.installPackage(Environment.getExternalStorageDirectory() +
File.separator + txtApkFileName.getText().toString());
} catch (IllegalArgumentException e1) {
// TODO Auto-generated catch block
e1.printStackTrace();
} catch (IllegalAccessException e1) {
// TODO Auto-generated catch block
e1.printStackTrace();
} catch (InvocationTargetException e1) {
// TODO Auto-generated catch block
e1.printStackTrace();
} // install package
break;
case R.id.btnUninstall:
// InstallUninstall.Uninstall(txtPackageName.getText().toString());
try {
am.uninstallPackage(txtPackageName.getText().toString());
} catch (IllegalArgumentException e) {
// TODO Auto-generated catch block
e.printStackTrace();
logError(e);
} catch (IllegalAccessException e) {
// TODO Auto-generated catch block
e.printStackTrace();
logError(e);
} catch (InvocationTargetException e) {
// TODO Auto-generated catch block
e.printStackTrace();
logError(e);
}
break;
}
}
}
private OnDeletedPackage onDeletedPackage;
class PackageDeleteObserver extends IPackageDeleteObserver.Stub {
public void packageDeleted(boolean succeeded) throws RemoteException {
if (onDeletedPackage != null) {
onDeletedPackage.packageDeleted(succeeded);
}
}
}
package com.example.instuninsthelper;
public interface OnDeletedPackage {
public void packageDeleted(boolean succeeded);
}
package android.content.pm;
public interface IPackageDeleteObserver extends android.os.IInterface {
public abstract static class Stub extends android.os.Binder implements android.content.pm.IPackageDeleteObserver {
public Stub() {
throw new RuntimeException("Stub!");
}
public static android.content.pm.IPackageDeleteObserver asInterface(android.os.IBinder obj) {
throw new RuntimeException("Stub!");
}
public android.os.IBinder asBinder() {
throw new RuntimeException("Stub!");
}
public boolean onTransact(int code, android.os.Parcel data, android.os.Parcel reply, int flags)
throws android.os.RemoteException {
throw new RuntimeException("Stub!");
}
}
public abstract void packageDeleted(boolean succeeded)
throws android.os.RemoteException;
}
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