Apologies if I have put this post in the wrong section, or if I have formatted it with errors. This is the first time I am writing on these forums. (Hello)
By the F-Droid website, F-Droid Privileged Extension OTA (the newest version) was added on Jan 23, 2022.
F-Droid Basic, at introduction, was added on 06-04-2023.
This would mean that the OTA ZIP predates existence of F-Droid Basic. Does it mean that it does not provide it the extended privileges that it provides to the F-Droid (Regular)?
The OTA ZIP comes with old version of F-Droid.apk included, in addition to the F-DroidPrivilegedExtension.apk. I assume I can slot in the never version of F-Droid.apk before flashing the OTA ZIP, and have the newest (at the time of flashing) version survive the factory reset.
While talking of surviving of factory reset, there are protections for the F-Droid.apk and F-DroidPrivilegedExtension.apk. Should the protections for the F-DroidBasic.apk be included too, or is it installed in the same directory as the F-Droid.apk and thus covered under same protection? And, if I replace included (in the OTA ZIP) F-Droid.apk with F-DroidBasic.apk renamed, will it work well, or will the updates by never versions overwrite it with regular client? Will it have privileged permissions at all?
Depending on answers to these questions, I have a few (potential) requests. Nothing urgent, nothing I am whining about, just a plea for it to be included, if it is not too inconvenient:
- Add extended permissions for F-DroidBasic.apk client, if it is not covered by those for regular client
- Add protections for it, when doing factory reset, same as for priviledged extension and regular client, if it is not protected already
- Add the check, when instaling OTA ZIP, if F-Droid.apk or F-DroidBasic.apk is included inside, and install the included one. (curently F-Droid.apk is included in the OTA ZIP, in addition to the F-DroidPrivilegedExtension.apk)
These changes would enable user, who is preparing a new-but-old device, to include newest (at the time of flashing) client, whether full or basic, on the device, and have it survive factory reset, together with extended permissions for it. The only manual thing for him would be to download newest version of full/basic client, replace included client in OTA ZIP with what he downloaded, and flash it with recovery.
P.S. A big thank you to F-Droid team, and all the people who have helped it, and supported it over the years.
