Android - Install APK silently with PackageInstaller and PackageInstaller.Session

Question

Looking into the sources of Android (AOSP), the installPackage is labled deprecated and inspecting the PackageManager application of Android, it uses the PackageInstaller class to create a PackageInstaller.Session instance to perform the installation of an APK.

I am trying to do the same in my application. I am signed with the system key and I did include the INSTALL_PACKAGES permission in the manifest.

Here's my code:

    val packageName = "com.spotify.music"
    val inputStream = File(filesDir, "spotify.apk").inputStream()

    // ...

    val packageInstaller = context.packageManager.packageInstaller
    val params = PackageInstaller.SessionParams(PackageInstaller.SessionParams.MODE_FULL_INSTALL)
    params.setAppPackageName(packageName)

    val sessionId = packageInstaller.createSession(params)
    val session = packageInstaller.openSession(sessionId)
    val out = session.openWrite("COSU", 0, -1)
    inputStream.copyTo(out)
    session.fsync(out)
    inputStream.close()
    out.close()
    session.commit(null)

However, I am getting the following weird null pointer exception:

Error while installing: java.lang.NullPointerException: Attempt to invoke virtual method 'void android.app.AppOpsManager.checkPackage(int, java.lang.String)' on a null object reference

Does anybody have a clue what's going wrong here?

Chamomile

Looking at the source of PackageInstallerService it grabs a reference to mContext.getSystemService(AppOpsManager.class) at system start up. But in your case it's null. You said you have the system signature. Are you building a custom ROM? Did you remove/disable app ops service? Is the system fully ready at the time you're attempting the install? What version of Android is this? – Vanzandt

Answer 1

You can't pass null to session.commit(). See the doc at Android Developers. What you need is an IntentSender, which you get from a PendingIntent which in turn should contain an intent that your app can receive (can be in either of an Activity, a Service or a BroadcastReceiver).

When the session is committed the result will be included as extras in the received intent.

Polymath

Answer 2

The following snippet should work for you (I did not test it, but you are more then welcome to debug it and edit any necessary changes).

Method parameters:

• context - Your application's Context
• installSessionId - A String to identify the install session
• packageName - The package name you wish to install (e.g. com.my.package)
• apkStream - An input stream that holds the APK file data.

Here is the code:

import android.app.PendingIntent;
import android.content.Context;
import android.content.Intent;
import android.content.pm.PackageManager;

import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.InputStream;
import java.io.OutputStream;

public class PackageInstaller {

    public static void installPackage(Context context, String installSessionId,
                                      String packageName,
                                      InputStream apkStream) throws IOException {
        PackageManager packageManger = context.getPackageManager();
        android.content.pm.PackageInstaller packageInstaller = 
                packageManger.getPackageInstaller();
        PackageInstaller.SessionParams params = new PackageInstaller.SessionParams(
                PackageInstaller.SessionParams.MODE_FULL_INSTALL);
        params.setAppPackageName(packageName);
        android.content.pm.PackageInstaller.Session session = null;
        try {
            int sessionId = packageInstaller.createSession(params);
            session = packageInstaller.openSession(sessionId);
            OutputStream out = session.openWrite(installSessionId, 0, -1);
            byte buffer[] = new byte[1024];
            int length;
            int count = 0;
            while ((length = apkStream.read(buffer)) != -1) {
                out.write(buffer, 0, length);
                count += length;
            }
            session.fsync(out);
            out.close();

            Intent intent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_PACKAGE_ADDED);

            session.commit(PendingIntent.getBroadcast(context, sessionId,
                    intent, PendingIntent.FLAG_UPDATE_CURRENT).getIntentSender());
        } finally {
            if (session != null) {
                session.close();
            }
        }
    }
}

Keeter

not working the codes – Gleeful