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I'm developing an app that will be included in the ROM of a phone vendor's new product. So this is the situation I'm facing:

  • my app resides in /system/app;
  • but the device is NOT rooted.

My question is, can my app somehow write into the /system folder? I know the system partition is usually read-only. Is it possible for my app to remount the system partition as read-write, write into it, and turn it back to read-only?

Terry Chang
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This guy managed to achieve it by using su permissions. I presume you will be developing an an app with signatureOrSystem permissions, I believe the permissions are similar to root but not 100%. It is hard to find out what exactly you can and can't do with signatureOrSystem permissions so I think this will be a trial and error exercise for you. My guess is that it will work with a remount.

Community
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Dean Wild
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  • Do stock (not rooted) devices have su? – Terry Chang Mar 10 '15 at 03:12
  • Define "stock" devices? Do you mean stock Android? i.e nexus devices? They don't have SU but they have unlockable bootloaders allowing custom roms (with su) to be easily flashed – Dean Wild Mar 10 '15 at 08:52
  • I mean devices that are not rooted. I may not be using the term correctly, sorry, please forget the "stock" word. What I mean is that the devices are clean, not rooted, not flashed, not unlocked, etc. They have just been shipped from the factory to the users, who are ordinary people and are using the devices in very ordinary ways. My app is installed by the vendor before the devices leave the factory, not by rooting. – Terry Chang Mar 11 '15 at 03:26
  • No, your app will not be able to obtain "su" permissions in the way that the other guy did. But, assuming your app has signatureOrSystem (see here http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/manifest/permission-element.html) then you may well be able to do what you want anyway. Like I said, you'll have to try it out – Dean Wild Mar 11 '15 at 08:43
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    Yes, I understand. Actually our team has decided that this approach is a bad idea and turned to other lines of thinking. But thanks anyway, I'll accept your answer and try what you suggest when I have time, because I find this topic technically interesting. – Terry Chang Mar 12 '15 at 02:47