Install apps silently with granted INSTALL PACKAGES permission

Question

I am trying to silently install apk into the system   My app is located in  system app and successfully granted permission  android permission INSTALL PACKAGES   However I can t find anywhere how to use this permission  I tried to copy files to  data app and had no success  Also I tried using this code      Intent intent   new Intent Intent ACTION VIEW       intent setDataAndType              Uri parse  file    sdcard app apk                 application vnd android package-archive        startActivity intent     But this code opens standard installation dialog  How can I install app silently without root with granted android permission INSTALL PACKAGES   PS I am writing an app that will install many apks from folder into the system on the first start  replace Setup Wizard   I need it to make firmware lighter    If you think that I am writing a virus  All programs are installed into  data app  Permission Install packages can only be granted to system-level programs located in  system app or signed with the system key  So virus can t get there   As said http   www mail-archive com android-porting googlegroups com msg06281 html apps CAN be silent installed if they have install packages permission  Moreover you don t need Install packages permission to install packages not silently  Plus http   www androidzoom com android applications tools silent-installer wgqi html

User · Answer

An 3rd party application cannot install an Android App sliently. However, a 3rd party application can ask the Android OS to install a application.

So you should define this:

Intent intent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_VIEW);
intent.setDataAndType(Uri.parse("file:///sdcard/app.apk", "application/vnd.android.package-archive");
startActivity(intent);

You can also try to install it as a system app to grant the permission and ignore this define. (Root Required)

You can run the following command on your 3rd party app to install an app on the rooted device.

The code is:

private void installApk(String filename) {
File file = new File(filename); 
if(file.exists()){
    try {   
        final String command = "pm install -r " + file.getAbsolutePath();
        Process proc = Runtime.getRuntime().exec(new String[] { "su", "-c", command });
        proc.waitFor();
    } catch (Exception e) {
        e.printStackTrace();
    }
 }
}

I hope that this answer is helpful for you.

User · Answer

you can use this in terminal or shell adb shell install -g MyApp apk  see more in develope google

User · Answer

I made a test app for silent installs  using PackageManager installPackage method   I get installPackage method through reflection  and made android content pm IPackageInstallObserver interface in my src folder  because it s hidden in android content pm package     When i run installPackage  i got SecurityException with string indication  that my app has no android permission INSTALL PACKAGES  but it defined in AndroidManifest xml    So  i think  it s not possible to use this method    PS  I tested in on Android SDK 2 3 and 4 0  Maybe it will work with earlier versions

User · Answer

Prerequisite   Your APK needs to be signed by system as correctly pointed out earlier  One way to achieve that is building the AOSP image yourself and adding the source code into the build   Code   Once installed as a system app  you can use the package manager methods to install and uninstall an APK as following   Install   public boolean install final String apkPath  final Context context        Log d TAG   Installing apk at     apkPath       try           final Uri apkUri   Uri fromFile new File apkPath            final String installerPackageName    MyInstaller           context getPackageManager   installPackage apkUri  installObserver  PackageManager INSTALL REPLACE EXISTING  installerPackageName           return true        catch  Exception e            e printStackTrace            return false            Uninstall   public boolean uninstall final String packageName  final Context context        Log d TAG   Uninstalling package     packageName       try           context getPackageManager   deletePackage packageName  deleteObserver  PackageManager DELETE ALL USERS           return true        catch  Exception e            e printStackTrace            return false            To have a callback once your APK is installed uninstalled you can use this          Callback after a package was installed be it success or failure      private class InstallObserver implements IPackageInstallObserver         Override     public void packageInstalled String packageName  int returnCode  throws RemoteException            if  packageName    null                Log d TAG   Successfully installed package     packageName               callback onAppInstalled true  packageName             else               Log e TAG   Failed to install package                 callback onAppInstalled false  null                         Override     public IBinder asBinder             return null                  Callback after a package was deleted be it success or failure      private class DeleteObserver implements IPackageDeleteObserver         Override     public void packageDeleted String packageName  int returnCode  throws RemoteException           if  packageName    null                Log d TAG   Successfully uninstalled package     packageName               callback onAppUninstalled true  packageName             else               Log e TAG   Failed to uninstall package                 callback onAppUninstalled false  null                         Override     public IBinder asBinder             return null                  Callback to give the flow back to the calling class      public interface InstallerCallback       void onAppInstalled final boolean success  final String packageName       void onAppUninstalled final boolean success  final String packageName            Tested on Android 8 1 and worked well

User · Answer

You should define    lt uses-permission     android name  android permission INSTALL PACKAGES    gt    in your manifest  then if whether you are in system partition   system app  or you have your application signed by the manufacturer  you are going to have INSTALL PACKAGES permission   My suggestion is to create a little android project with 1 5 compatibility level used to call installPackages via reflection and to export a jar with methods to install packages and to call the real methods  Then  by importing the jar in your project you will be ready to install packages

User · Answer

I had no idea of how to do this  because nobody answered that time  and I found no documentation about this permission  So I found my own solution  It is worser that yours  but this is a solution anyway   I installed busybox  that set 777 permission to  data app  I dont care about security   Then just executed  busybox install  from app  This works  but has a big security leak  If you set permissions 777  no root required

User · Answer

bin bash f  home cox myapp apk    or  1 if input from terminal    backup env var backup  LD LIBRARY PATH LD LIBRARY PATH  vendor lib  system lib myTemp  sdcard temp apk adb push  f  myTemp adb shell pm install -r  myTemp  restore env var LD LIBRARY PATH  backup  This works for me  I run this on ubuntu 12 04  on shell terminal

User · Answer

I checked all the answers  the conclusion seems to be you must have root access to the device first to make it work   But then I found these articles very useful  Since I m making  company-owned  devices    How to Update Android App Silently Without User Interaction  Android Device Owner - Minimal App  Here is google s the documentation about  managed-device   Fully managed device

User · Answer

You can use the hidden API android content pm IPackageInstallObserver by reflection   public class PackageManagement       public static final int INSTALL REPLACE EXISTING   0x00000002      public static final int INSTALL SUCCEEDED   1       private static Method installPackageMethod      private static Method deletePackageMethod       static           try               installPackageMethod   PackageManager class getMethod  installPackage   Uri class  IPackageInstallObserver class  Integer TYPE  String class             catch  NoSuchMethodException e                e printStackTrace                         public static void installPackage PackageManager pm  Uri mPackageUri  IPackageInstallObserver observer  int installFlags  String installerPackageName            try               installPackageMethod invoke pm  mPackageUri  observer  installFlags  installerPackageName             catch  Exception e                e printStackTrace                        Import android content pm IPackageInstallObserver into your project  Your app must be system  You must activate the permission android permission INSTALL PACKAGES in your manifest file

User · Answer

I have been implementing installation without user consent recently - it was a kiosk application for API level 21  where I had full control over environment   The basic requirements are    API level 21   root access to install the updater as a system privileged app    The following method reads and installs APK from InputStream   public static boolean installPackage Context context  InputStream in  String packageName              throws IOException           PackageInstaller packageInstaller   context getPackageManager   getPackageInstaller            PackageInstaller SessionParams params   new PackageInstaller SessionParams                  PackageInstaller SessionParams MODE FULL INSTALL           params setAppPackageName packageName              set params         int sessionId   packageInstaller createSession params           PackageInstaller Session session   packageInstaller openSession sessionId           OutputStream out   session openWrite  COSU   0  -1           byte   buffer   new byte 65536           int c          while   c   in read buffer      -1                out write buffer  0  c                     session fsync out           in close            out close             Intent intent   new Intent context  MainActivity class           intent putExtra  info    somedata        for extra data if needed            Random generator   new Random             PendingIntent i   PendingIntent getActivity context  generator nextInt    intent PendingIntent FLAG UPDATE CURRENT               session commit i getIntentSender               return true          The following code calls the installation   try        InputStream is   getResources   openRawResource R raw someapk source                       installPackage MainActivity this  is   com example apk           catch  IOException e                        Toast makeText MainActivity this  e getMessage    Toast LENGTH SHORT  show             for the whole thing to work you desperately need INSTALL PACKAGES permission  or the code above will fail silently   lt uses-permission         android name  android permission INSTALL PACKAGES    gt    to get this permission you must install your APK as System application which REQUIRES root  however AFTER you have installed your updater application it seem to work WITHOUT root   To install as system application I created a signed APK and pushed it with   adb push updater apk  sdcard updater apk   and then moved it to system priv-app - which requires remounting FS  this is why the root is required   adb shell su mount -o rw remount  system mv  sdcard updater apk  system priv-app chmod 644  system priv-app updater apk   for some reason it didn t work with simple debug version  but logcat shows useful info if your application in priv-app is not picked up for some reason

User · Answer

I tried on rooted Android 4 2 2 and this method works for me   private void installApk String filename        File file   new File filename        if file exists             try                  final String command    pm install -r     file getAbsolutePath                Process proc   Runtime getRuntime   exec new String      su    -c   command                 proc waitFor              catch  Exception e                e printStackTrace

User · Answer

You can simply use adb install command to install update APK silently  Sample code is below  public static void InstallAPK String filename       File file   new File filename        if file exists             try                  String command              filename   StringUtil insertEscape filename               command    adb install -r     filename              Process proc   Runtime getRuntime   exec new String      su    -c   command                 proc waitFor              catch  Exception e            e printStackTrace

User · Answer

I have checked how ADB installs apps  - It copies the APK to  data local tmp - it runs  shell pm install  data local tmp app apk   I have tried to replicate this behaviour by doing   on pc  using usb-cable  adb push app apk  sdcard app apk adb shell   pm install  sdcard app apk This works  The app is installed   I made an application  named AppInstall  which should install the other app   installed normally  non-rooted device  It does  Runtime getRuntime   exec  pm install  sdcard app apk   waitFor    But this gives the error  java lang SecurityException  Neither user 10019 nor current process has android permission INSTALL PACKAGES  It seems like the error is thrown by pm  not by AppInstall  Because the SecurityException is not catched by AppInstall and the app does not crash   I ve tried the same thing on a rooted device  same app and AppInstall  and it worked like a charm   Also normally installed  not in  system or anything  AppInstall didn t even ask root-permission   But thats because the shell is always   instead of   on that device   Btw  you need root to install an app in  system  correct  I tried adb remount on the non-rooted device and got   remount failed  Operation not permitted  That s why I could not try the  system thing on the non-rooted device   Conclusion  you should use a rooted device Hope this helps

User · Answer

Your first bet is to look into Android s native PackageInstaller  I would recommend modifying that app the way you like  or just extract required functionality      Specifically  if you look into PackageInstallerActivity and its method onClickListener    public void onClick View v        if v    mOk               Start subactivity to actually install the application         Intent newIntent   new Intent                        newIntent setClass this  InstallAppProgress class                       startActivity newIntent           finish          else if v    mCancel               Cancel and finish         finish              Then you ll notice that actual installer is located in InstallAppProgress class  Inspecting that class you ll find that initView is the core installer function  and the final thing it does is call to PackageManager s installPackage function   public void initView         pm installPackage mPackageURI  observer  installFlags  installerPackageName       Next step is to inspect PackageManager  which is abstract class  You ll find installPackage      function there  The bad news is that it s marked with  hide  This means it s not directly available  you won t be able to compile with call to this method              hide                 public abstract void installPackage Uri packageURI               IPackageInstallObserver observer                int flags String installerPackageName      But you will be able to access this methods via reflection   If you are interested in how PackageManager s installPackage function is implemented  take a look at PackageManagerService   Summary  You ll need to get package manager object via Context s getPackageManager    Then you will call installPackage function via reflection

User · Answer

Its possible to do silent install on Android 6 and above  Using the function supplied in the answer by Boris Treukhov  ignore everything else in the post  root is not required either   Install your app as device admin  you can have full kiosk mode with silent install of updates in the background

User · Answer

Try this LD LIBRARY PATH  vendor lib  system lib before pm install  It works well

[android] Install apps silently, with granted INSTALL_PACKAGES permission

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