Should F-Droid client and Privileged Extension OTA be flashed at the same time?

buenalabs · March 15, 2020, 9:52am

I want to flash the F-Droid Privileged Extension OTA. Will I still need to install the F-Droid client, or does it already come with the Privileged Extension?

If not, what’s the best way of going about this? Should I flash the F-Droid client alongside the Privileged Extension OTA? Or, should I install the F-Droid APK the usual way from the F-Droid website?

relan · March 15, 2020, 12:50pm

The Privileged Extension is an optional add-on. It does not include the F-Droid client. You should install F-Droid client from within Android and flash the Privileged Extension using a custom recovery.

buenalabs · March 16, 2020, 6:33am

So:

Install the F-Droid APK first?
Then, flash the Privileged Extension via recovery?

relan · March 16, 2020, 6:50am

Yep. The order shouldn’t matter actually.

buenalabs · March 16, 2020, 7:36am

In my first attempt, I flashed the Privileged Extension OTA first. Then, I installed the F-Droid APK.

But the Priveleged Extension option didn’t appear in F-Droid Settings. So, I tried reflashing it again, but still no dice.

relan · March 16, 2020, 7:49am

Is there anything relevant in logcat?

buenalabs · March 16, 2020, 7:56am

I haven’t checked. What’s the recommended way of doing that?

relan · March 16, 2020, 8:16am

seqularise · March 16, 2020, 1:06pm

Are you on android q? i have this problem, seems like ota doesnt work on system-as-root layouts

buenalabs · March 16, 2020, 6:19pm

Android 9. What does system-as-root mean?

relan · March 17, 2020, 6:48am

What does system-as-root mean?

A new filesystem layout:

https://source.android.com/devices/bootloader/system-as-root

buenalabs · March 17, 2020, 9:42am

Is there like an ELI5 summary? The documentation on android.com is pretty technical.

pled · March 21, 2020, 12:14pm

Hi, From my experience, running LOS 16 on BQ Aquaris : I flashed the following zip org.fdroid.fdroid.privileged.ota_2090.zip that you can get from here : F-Droid Privileged Extension OTA | F-Droid - Free and Open Source Android App Repository. You need root privilege, aka addonsu.zip installed before (for LOS).
Then once I boot up the device, F-Droid was installed, and Priviliged Exstension as well. Automatic updates for F-Droid Apps work like a charm.
Hope that helps,

star · April 9, 2020, 5:52pm

I tried this OTA at LOS 17. But it seems nothing happend in FDroid. Does it somehow request root access at Magisk (as other apps that requires root)?
Is it because Q / LOS17 isn’t supported?

Licaon_Kter · April 12, 2020, 4:50pm

No root asked.

Can you look in F-Droid Settings…expert…is the last option checked?

foldfree · May 1, 2020, 12:14pm

Hello, I’m having same isuues. I’m using crdroid 6.5, based on android Q, and flashed the privileged extension zip with TWRP, last option in fdroid expert mode is enabled.

The error message is as follow:
“The privilege permissions have not been granted to the extension! Please create a bug report.”

EDIT: Flashing the magisk module works. Perhaps it could be told in the package description as an alternative?

oF2pks · May 1, 2020, 1:48pm

@relan @Licaon_Kter (@Roboe ), this can be considered as custom recovery bug: lack of mount_apex()

github.com/opengapps/opengapps

installer: mount fixes for TWRP SAR(s) and Lineage 16+17 Recoveries

committed 08:38PM - 30 Jan 20 UTC

osm0sis

+99 -40

TWRP now has 3(!) different competing implementations of SAR currently in use by… maintainers: 1) /system as mountpoint in ramdisk/fstab and ANDROID_ROOT=/system, and possible symlink from /system_root to /system 2) /system_root as mountpoint in ramdisk/fstab, ANDROID_ROOT=/system_root, and possible symlink from /system to /system_root/system 3) /system_root as mountpoint in ramdisk/fstab, ANDROID_ROOT=/system, and possible symlink from /system to /system_root/system Lineage 16 has: /system_root as mountpoint in ramdisk, neither /system nor /system_root in fstab (it has / instead, which is dangerous), ANDROID_ROOT=/system, and a possible symlink from /system to /system_root/system Lineage 17 has: /system mountpoint in ramdisk, neither /system nor /system_root in fstab (it has / instead, which is dangerous), ANDROID_ROOT=/system, and no /system_root symlink TWRP is working on standardizing their fragmented SAR support, and Lineage is also looking into resolving some issues with their AOSP Q setup. These changes should work across the board since Open GApps is using its own busybox enviornment for install, and should automatically work with TWRP's final SAR setup, but will benefit from an update once Lineage works theirs out, since it will likely be very different due to AOSP Q recovery.

(but soon or later F-DroidPrivilegedExtension may (?) need hot build of patched Busybox : GitHub - yashdsaraf/busybox: Original busybox source with some patches (as in OpenGapps.zip) ?

therajatshahare · May 14, 2020, 1:48pm

Basically this ota zip didn’t work in android 10 roms. I think Dev’s should work on it. I tried all possible thinks but not working in all roms. In twrp recovery it says it’s flashed successfully but when I boot phone there is no app and nothing change.

Manually app installed but that ota zip is just bluff I guess. I always tap to install button always to install app from F-droid. Also there is no support from Dev’s which is worst thing in my opinion.

foldfree · May 14, 2020, 2:13pm

Did you tried to flash the magisk module? Worked for me.

Licaon_Kter · May 14, 2020, 3:23pm

Note that you DON’T FLASH the Magisk module, you just “install it in Magisk”