Android/Building/SystemAPPs

System APPs

Android system APPs are these applications which are installed in system partition. Since system partition is read only at runtime, thus the system APPs are not remove-able for general user.

Add/Remove

In general, there are two ways to add/remove system applications.

At build time

System application configurations for android build system are located under source code folder vendor/olpc/xo4/apps/ To add an application in system partition simply do:

• Copy pre-built APK file to vendor/olpx/xo4/apps/

cp YourAPKName.apk vendor/olpc/xo4/apps/

• Add build description in [Android.mk] under vendor/olpx/xo4/apps

include $(CLEAR_VARS)
LOCAL_MODULE := YourAPKName
LOCAL_MODULE_OWNER := xxxx
LOCAL_SRC_FILES := $(LOCAL_MODULE).apk
LOCAL_MODULE_CLASS := APPS
LOCAL_MODULE_TAGS := optional
LOCAL_CERTIFICATE := platform
LOCAL_MODULE_SUFFIX := $(COMMON_ANDROID_PACKAGE_SUFFIX)
include $(BUILD_PREBUILT)

Note: If no need to resign application put PRESIGNED instead of platform

• Add module name in [apps.mk] under vendor/olpx/xo4/apps

PRODUCT_PACKAGES += \
   ....... \
   ....... \
   YourAPKName

• Rebuild Android system

Important: system partition size needs adjust
Since system partition has limited size, developer should make sure system partition size is big enough for the new applications.

At runtime

This relies on Android OTA update system which allow the system reboots into recovery mode then mount system partition as RW for applying system partition changes.
XO-4 does NOT support runtime system partition update since recovery mode haven't been implemented.

Upgrade

• System APPs should be upgraded via update system in recovery mode.
• System APPs can be upgraded as normal application, the new version will be stored on data partition.

System Partition Size

System partition size configuration is located in [BoardConfigVender.mk] under vendor/olpx/xo4 folder in source code.

SYSTEM_IMAGE_SIZE_IN_MEGABYTES := 420

Size are in megabytes.