[Android 13] [GApps] NikGApps [ARM64]

[Nikhil]

Hello all.
I have a Pixel 7. Im trying to use LineageOS. I tried installing both CalyxOS and Lineage with Micro but sadly neither OS has the necessary functionality required by the app Duo Mobile to allow google logins. That led me to falling back to using a GApps toolset. I've been reading that I need Trichrome library, webview installed which your Gapps has. Also when I try to install from Aurora I get compatibility errors. But after 2 weeks of submitting custom configs I'm still not getting Duo to give me the login prompts. The only way so far that I have been able to get Duo to work on 3rd party OS is by using Nik Gapps Core config.

After looking at the .config for "Core" package I see that almost ALL options enabled. I was hoping I could reduced Googles foot print on my phone beyond the what the "Core" package provides.

Can anyone tell me what is the absolute minimum options I need to enable in the .config file to get the Duo Mobile app to work properly?

Can you link me to any of the pull request that you've submitted and has been waiting? I'm sure there will be necessary response if there was an issue with the config that you submitted.

Also, your best bet is building the gapps with core + Google chrome addon.

Alternatively, you can download NikGapps core and Google Chrome addon from sourceforge.net and flash it in recovery. There's Google duo app available too. No harm in flashing that but that can easily be installed from Playstore and would function the same.

 

[myi500]

Can you link me to any of the pull request that you've submitted and has been waiting? I'm sure there will be necessary response if there was an issue with the config that you submitted.

Also, your best bet is building the gapps with core + Google chrome addon.

Alternatively, you can download NikGapps core and Google Chrome addon from sourceforge.net and flash it in recovery. There's Google duo app available too. No harm in flashing that but that can easily be installed from Playstore and would function the same.

Here is the last 1, I submitted. I thought I did enabled Core and chrome in the .config file. Are you able to see this the file from the link below? But it was already merged... Should I resubmit or just post the .config on here?

whoube2.config by whoube · Pull Request #6382 · nikgapps/config

even more g crap allowed

github.com

 

[myi500]

Here is the last 1, I submitted. I thought I did enabled Core and chrome in the .config file. Are you able to see this the file from the link below? But it was already merged... Should I resubmit or just post the .config on here?

whoube2.config by whoube · Pull Request #6382 · nikgapps/config

even more g crap allowed

github.com

Please let me know if thats not sufficient response.

 

[Nikhil]

Please let me know if thats not sufficient response.

All good
You will find the link here - https://t.me/NikGappsGroup/185401/190010

 

[myi500]

All good
You will find the link here - https://t.me/NikGappsGroup/185401/190010

It got late on me and I forgot to say thank you. Especially for really quick turn around on this!

 

[Nikhil]

I tried clearing data on those and TTS using Swift Backup and then rebooted and still no luck. Oh well.

As for the OTA process, major success! Everything appears to have worked(!), with only one minor exception:

Debloater addon.d appears to not have worked, so Eleven and Seedvault came back after the update.

On my device ROM the respective apps are located at:
/product/priv-app/Eleven
/system_ext/priv-app/Seedvault

And debloater does work perfectly on a zip flash, so the issue is isolated to the addon.d. /sdcard/NikGapps config/logs directory zip attached.

P.S. I noticed /sdcard/NikGapps/addonLogs/NikGapps_addon.log continues to grow with subsequent OTAs, not sure if intentional; maybe it should have a date like the other or get cleared with each OTA, or it should all be in the dated logs?

Both the issues are fixed.
Fix the debloater not surviving OTA update
Fix the incorrect naming convention of addonlogs

It will be released as soon as I finish updating go apps for android 12 and 13.

 

[Nikhil]

New Stable Release is up - 19th Mar 2023 (Android 10-13)

Changelog:
- Fixed the incorrect naming convention of addonlogs
- Fixed the debloater not surviving OTA update in some scenarios
- Enable pixel launcher animations
- Update the Go apps to latest available versions
- Update NikGapps Logo in recovery
- Minor Script Improvements

Note:
- Clean flash is recommended!

Happy Flashing!

 

[osm0sis]

If this doesn't work, it's just best to clean flash. I wish I could reproduce the problem to give you recommendations that I know will definitely work.

I am advising this because these apps are the ones responsible behind the scene for the functionality to work and wiping the data should just start fresh.

I decided to grab a logcat for us to see what the exact issue is. It reads kinda interesting, kinda confusing, like something wrong with the download itself: "Unknown source", permissions issue somehow still?

I then experimented by grabbing the URL from the log, downloaded en-US v3008 manually through Chrome, unzipped it into /product/usr/srec and now all don't complain about being out of date. Good workaround so far it seems!

Does NikGapps add srec? I couldn't find the package when I looked through. I know Open GApps used to push their own from a Factory Image.

 

[Nikhil]

I decided to grab a logcat for us to see what the exact issue is. It reads kinda interesting, kinda confusing, like something wrong with the download itself: "Unknown source", permissions issue somehow still?

I then experimented by grabbing the URL from the log, downloaded en-US v3008 manually through Chrome, unzipped it into /product/usr/srec and now all don't complain about being out of date. Good workaround so far it seems!

Does NikGapps add srec? I couldn't find the package when I looked through. I know Open GApps used to push their own from a Factory Image.

yes, we do, https://gitlab.com/nikgapps/13/-/tree/main/GBoard/GBoard/___usr___srec___en-US
It's should be under /product/usr/srec/en-US folder.
do you have Gboard installed?

also, can you confirm the NikGapps build date that you are on? and that you clean flashed or dirty flashed?

Surprised to see you're still facing the language download issue as long as you have AIS, Private Compute Services, Settings Services and you clean flashed 9th march or above build, it should work.

 

[osm0sis]

yes, we do, https://gitlab.com/nikgapps/13/-/tree/main/GBoard/GBoard/___usr___srec___en-US
It's should be under /product/usr/srec/en-US folder.
do you have Gboard installed?

also, can you confirm the NikGapps build date that you are on? and that you clean flashed or dirty flashed?

Surprised to see you're still facing the language download issue as long as you have AIS, Private Compute Services, Settings Services and you clean flashed 9th march or above build, it should work.

Yeah it's like I said, something with the Google account appdata restore seemed to break it for me. Haven't clean flashed again yet since the last one I reported on (0309), just dirty flashed 0311 and now 0319, and poking around to see what I can get working. GBoard is enabled in my config yeah, I just missed srec in there when looking through.

 

[osm0sis]

Just took another Lineage OTA and had to reflash latest GApps again after to get Debloater addon.d set up correctly, so that got me thinking:

1) Shouldn't it work using the provided keywords/paths even when GApps was flashed after, e.g., a manual removal of targeted apps/files?

2) Shouldn't the addon.d script # prefix be 04- or less so that debloating occurs before app installs, to provide the most space and mirror the order of the install zip?

3) After my usual setup with Full zip then Duo addon zip, I noticed the script ended up with:

list_files() {
cat <<EOF
etc/permissions/Debloater.prop
etc/permissions/Debloater.prop
EOF
}

So seems something might need adjusting to avoid that sort of duplicated listing?

 

[casouzaj]

I use the full version. It`s possible that yesterday`s LineageOS 20 build had Android 13 QPR2 merged. Pixel Launcher runs, but the recents panel is broken.

 

[Nikhil]

Just took another Lineage OTA and had to reflash latest GApps again after to get Debloater addon.d set up correctly, so that got me thinking:

1) Shouldn't it work using the provided keywords/paths even when GApps was flashed after, e.g., a manual removal of targeted apps/files?

2) Shouldn't the addon.d script # prefix be 04- or less so that debloating occurs before app installs, to provide the most space and mirror the order of the install zip?

3) After my usual setup with Full zip then Duo addon zip, I noticed the script ended up with:

list_files() {
cat <<EOF
etc/permissions/Debloater.prop
etc/permissions/Debloater.prop
EOF
}

So seems something might need adjusting to avoid that sort of duplicated listing?

1) a manual removal of targeted apps/files? can you please elaborate?
2) Logically, yes! Changes made - Set the Debloater index to 04 to make sure debloater runs first (to make space for gapps restoration)
3) Thanks for finding it, Fixed the generation of duplicate prop values in list_files (addon.d)

Next release will have it incorporated and can be dirty flashed to override the existing addon.d (as long as Debloater.prop from /system/etc/permissions doesn't have duplicates). If the prop file does have duplicate, then a clean flash will fix it. Regardless, it won't hurt the restoration in next OTA update.

I appreciate you bringing in those bugs to my notice, NikGapps is getting better with every release.

 

[Nikhil]

I use the full version. It`s possible that yesterday`s LineageOS 20 build had Android 13 QPR2 merged. Pixel Launcher runs, but the recents panel is broken.

Thanks for reporting, I will take a closer look at Pixel Launcher after I update my op7 pro with next LineageOS 20 build which is due in next 2 days. Meanwhile, can you screenrecord and show how it is behaving?

 

[casouzaj]

Thanks for reporting, I will take a closer look at Pixel Launcher after I update my op7 pro with next LineageOS 20 build which is due in next 2 days. Meanwhile, can you screenrecord and show how it is behaving?

It's this way, no matter if it is invoked by gestures or 3 buttons navigation.

 

[Nikhil]

It's this way, no matter if it is invoked by gestures or 3 buttons navigation.

so if you open any app -> go back to home

still you don't see any app in the recents? always blank?

can you grab a logcat?

 

[casouzaj]

so if you open any app -> go back to home

still you don't see any app in the recents? always blank?

can you grab a logcat?

I've been told that the Pixel Launcher included in your package is meant for QPR1 only. Is it true?

 

[osm0sis]

Just took another Lineage OTA and had to reflash latest GApps again after to get Debloater addon.d set up correctly, so that got me thinking:

1) Shouldn't it work using the provided keywords/paths even when GApps was flashed after, e.g., a manual removal of targeted apps/files?

1) a manual removal of targeted apps/files? can you please elaborate?

I appreciate you bringing in those bugs to my notice, NikGapps is getting better with every release.

My bad, I could've explained that better.

After my last OTA where Eleven and Seedvault weren't removed due to the Addon zip Debloater bug, I just went and deleted those APKs manually.

So then even though I'd recently dirty flashed the NikGapps with the fixes, the Debloater config didn't add anything to the addon.d since I had already manually removed them beforehand.

My question is, why does the exact path need to be detected during the install at all? Couldn't the Debloater config (in my case just the two keywords: Eleven
Seedvault) just be dumped directly into the addon.d script and then the addon.d script could handle it all from there?

And, heck yeah, I'm really impressed by the scope and robustness of NikGapps so I'm pretty excited to see it become a bugless beast! Glad you don't mind my rigorous testing!

 

[Nikhil]

I've been told that the Pixel Launcher included in your package is meant for QPR1 only. Is it true?

The Packages are never meant to last a specific release only. They need an update when google brings a bigger change. There are bunch of fixes and features introduced with Pixel Launcher with QPR2 (just like QPR1) which is probably why it needs attention. The dumps are not yet up (should be soon enough) after which we will have an updated apk with their overlays shipped in NikGapps.

My bad, I could've explained that better.

After my last OTA where Eleven and Seedvault weren't removed due to the Addon zip Debloater bug, I just went and deleted those APKs manually.

So then even though I'd recently dirty flashed the NikGapps with the fixes, the Debloater config didn't add anything to the addon.d since I had already manually removed them beforehand.

My question is, why does the exact path need to be detected during the install at all? Couldn't the Debloater config (in my case just the two keywords: Eleven
Seedvault) just be dumped directly into the addon.d script and then the addon.d script could handle it all from there?

The idea behind shortlisting the paths that were debloated by the system was because the execution of finding the folder and deleting it takes a while and we may have multiple folders listed in debloater.config (say 10) but actually only a few exist (say 2). So the execution of deleting "two known paths" vs 10 "find and delete" is faster and optimized.

I did have this in place before and eventually removed it and brought in 'prop' concept which captures the folders we're deleting and operates on them only.

I will try to find an optimized solution and implement a way to delete the predefined folders always.

And, heck yeah, I'm really impressed by the scope and robustness of NikGapps so I'm pretty excited to see it become a bugless beast! Glad you don't mind my rigorous testing!

Thanks! There are a lot of new things to implement that actually gives full control over gapps.

 

[R7D7]

Will someone point me to step-by-step documentation for how to change which packages are installed via NikGapps? I've read All about NikGapps.config carefully several times and still don't understand. While I am very well versed in *nix desktop and server system administration, I am just getting into Android and obviously don't have enough contextual knowledge to understand specifically what to do from the link.

My philosophy is to always start minimal and install things as needed rather than install the world and try to cut back. So I installed LineageOS 20 and NikGapps Core (specifically NikGapps-core-arm64-13-20230218-signed.zip) and they are working. I'd like to now modify which packages are installed.

If I understand correctly, I need to create a directory at /sdcard1/NikGapps and install (and modify) nikgapps.config. I'm then supposed to reflash the zip I used originally (the one specified above I believe). The commands I original used are

$ adb reboot sideload
$ adb sideload lineage-20.0-20230223-nightly-fajita-signed.zip
$ adb sideload NikGapps-core-arm64-13-20230218-signed.zip

then rebooted from the bootloader. Do I need to repeat the first and last steps in order to reflash after I've set up nikgaps.config?

$ adb reboot sideload
$ adb sideload NikGapps-core-arm64-13-20230218-signed.zip