How to add system apps (priv-app) on Fairphone 3 (FP3)?

/e/OS Devices Fairphone
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I think we should stop now with this kernel / Linux / Android discussion here. Because it’d out of topic of this post.

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@Manuel: Yes, all my installation attempts were with the OTA .zip through recovery mode.

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I could’ve sworn I mentioned before somewhere to just use the NanoDroid-fdroid package (not to be confused with the full NanoDroid or its other packages). On my Essential PH-1 (an A/B system-as-root device) the installation just works. It flashes F-Droid in /system/app and the privileged extension to /system/priv-app (on the TWRP side that would be /system/system/app and /system/system/priv-app respectively). As well as necessary permission files.

The privileged extension does not require root as it uses system permissions to do its work. Similar to how Apps and Play Store do their thing.

I also remember examining the OTA zip. The script shows that it supports system-as-root and should do the right thing when flashed. Since I haven’t had a need to use that zip on the mata I can’t say if it does.

Regardless, TWRP is a necessity here

EDIT: Ah, just read the previous thread and see some things were already covered. Sorry.
So when you flashed NanoDroid-fdroid you said the F-Droid app wasn’t visible in the launcher or under System -> Apps & Notifications? Select ‘Show system’ to see the privileged extension, ofc.

For real though, either of the two installers should just work. If not then the issue is some kind of Fairphone peculiarity. Definitely not /e/ related for sure.

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Correct. More than that, the files that should be installed in /system/priv-app/ and /system/app/ were entirely missing when booting normally (checked on the command line using Terminal app/adb shell), even though they’re there in recovery mode.

It indeed seems specific to the Fairphone 3, although I definitely wouldn’t say that it’s unrelated to /e/. As I explained, F-Droid and the Privileged Extension do show up if Magisk is installed (even if this is done afterwards), which replaces boot.img. So there’s something in the boot.img which /e/ ships for the Fairphone 3 that prevents these kinds of modifications.

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Ah, I see about the second point. Let’s hope that’s not the case.

In the Fairphone section there was another thread related to trying to get the F-Droid stuff working. Not sure if the user ever got it working.

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