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posted 2019-05-08 12:20:09 +0200

[HowTo] Install Google Play Services on baseport 8 devices from Microsoft Windows (Not working, proofcheck required)

This wants to be a comprehensive guide for installing Android support on baseport 8 devices, currently the Xperia XA2 series. This procedure has not worked for me, so support is required by someone who got it working.

The steps are the following:

  1. Install on your pc a Windows binary version of lzip and squashfs-tools.
  2. Download a pico version of opengapps from opengapps.org for the ARM64.
  3. Get the /opt/alien/system.img file from the device. You can do so by copying it to the /home/nemo/Downloads directory and accessing the phone via USB in MTP mode.
  4. Choose or create a temporary folder on the PC (let's call it Temp). Unsquash thesystem.img file in a folder called system/ inside the temporary folder: unsquashfs.exe -d <path>/system.img Temp/system.img.
  5. Extract the Core directory from the opengapps archive into a Core subdirectory of the Temp directory.
  6. Inside the Core subdirectory on the PC, decompress the following archives using lzip -d archivename: vending-arm, gsfcore-all, gmscore-arm64, gmssetup-all, googleonetimeinitializer-all, googlepartnersetup-all.
  7. Each of the decompressed archives is now in tar format. You can open them with winrar. Each of them contains one or more priv-app directories. If more than one is present, take the one under the nodpi path. Take the contents of the selected priv-app directory, one for each archive (in all cases it is another single directory), and copy them to the system/priv-app directory located inside the Temp/systemdirectory (Temp/system/system/priv-app).
  8. Repack the system into another system.img file: mksquashfs.exe system\ system.img -comp lz4 -Xhc -noappend -no-exports -no-duplicates -no-fragments.
  9. Copy the new system.img file to the /home/nemo/Downloads directory on the phone via USB.
  10. Stop Alien Dalvik.
  11. Open a shell on the phone and enter root mode via devel-su.
  12. Rename the old file just in case: mv /opt/alien/system.img /opt/alien/system.img.old.
  13. Copy the new file: cp /home/nemo/Downloads/system.img /opt/alien/.
  14. Restart Alien Dalvik, or reboot the phone, and watch Android support not starting.

What am I doing wrong?

[HowTo] Install Google Play Services on baseport 8 devices from Microsoft Windows (Not working, proofcheck required)

This wants to be a comprehensive guide for installing Android support on baseport 8 devices, currently the Xperia XA2 series. This procedure has not worked for me, so support is required by someone who got it working.

The steps are the following:

  1. Install on your pc a Windows binary version of lzip and squashfs-tools.
  2. Download a pico version of opengapps from opengapps.org for the ARM64.
  3. Get the /opt/alien/system.img file from the device. You can do so by copying it to the /home/nemo/Downloads directory and accessing the phone via USB in MTP mode.
  4. Choose or create a temporary folder on the PC (let's call it Temp). Unsquash thesystem.img file in a folder called system/ inside the temporary folder: unsquashfs.exe -d <path>/system.img Temp/system.imgTemp/system.
  5. Extract the Core directory from the opengapps archive into a Core subdirectory of the Temp directory.
  6. Inside the Core subdirectory on the PC, decompress the following archives using lzip -d archivename: vending-arm, gsfcore-all, gmscore-arm64, gmssetup-all, googleonetimeinitializer-all, googlepartnersetup-all.
  7. Each of the decompressed archives is now in tar format. You can open them with winrar. Each of them contains one or more priv-app directories. If more than one is present, take the one under the nodpi path. Take the contents of the selected priv-app directory, one for each archive (in all cases it is another single directory), and copy them to the system/priv-app directory located inside the Temp/systemdirectory (Temp/system/system/priv-app).
  8. Repack the system into another system.img file: mksquashfs.exe system\ system.img -comp lz4 -Xhc -noappend -no-exports -no-duplicates -no-fragments.
  9. Copy the new system.img file to the /home/nemo/Downloads directory on the phone via USB.
  10. Stop Alien Dalvik.
  11. Open a shell on the phone and enter root mode via devel-su.
  12. Rename the old file just in case: mv /opt/alien/system.img /opt/alien/system.img.old.
  13. Copy the new file: cp /home/nemo/Downloads/system.img /opt/alien/.
  14. Restart Alien Dalvik, or reboot the phone, and watch Android support not starting.

What am I doing wrong?

[HowTo] Install Google Play Services on baseport 8 devices from Microsoft Windows (Not working, proofcheck required)

This wants to be a comprehensive guide for installing Android support on baseport 8 devices, currently the Xperia XA2 series. This procedure has not worked for me, so support is required by someone who got it working.

The steps are the following:

  1. Install on your pc a Windows binary version of lzip and squashfs-tools.
  2. Download a pico version of opengapps from opengapps.org for the ARM64.
  3. Get the /opt/alien/system.img file from the device. You can do so by copying it to the /home/nemo/Downloads directory and accessing the phone via USB in MTP mode.
  4. Choose or create a temporary folder on the PC (let's call it Temp). Unsquash thesystem.img file in a folder called system/ inside the temporary folder: unsquashfs.exe -d <path>/system.img yourpath/system.img Temp/system.
  5. Extract the Core directory from the opengapps archive into a Core subdirectory of the Temp directory.
  6. Inside the Core subdirectory on the PC, decompress the following archives using lzip -d archivename: vending-arm, gsfcore-all, gmscore-arm64, gmssetup-all, googleonetimeinitializer-all, googlepartnersetup-all.
  7. Each of the decompressed archives is now in tar format. You can open them with winrar. Each of them contains one or more priv-app directories. If more than one is present, take the one under the nodpi path. Take the contents of the selected priv-app directory, one for each archive (in all cases it is another single directory), and copy them to the system/priv-app directory located inside the Temp/systemdirectory (Temp/system/system/priv-app).
  8. Repack the system into another system.img file: mksquashfs.exe system\ system.img -comp lz4 -Xhc -noappend -no-exports -no-duplicates -no-fragments.
  9. Copy the new system.img file to the /home/nemo/Downloads directory on the phone via USB.
  10. Stop Alien Dalvik.
  11. Open a shell on the phone and enter root mode via devel-su.
  12. Rename the old file just in case: mv /opt/alien/system.img /opt/alien/system.img.old.
  13. Copy the new file: cp /home/nemo/Downloads/system.img /opt/alien/.
  14. Restart Alien Dalvik, or reboot the phone, and watch Android support not starting.

What am I doing wrong?

[HowTo] Install Google Play Services on baseport 8 devices from Microsoft Windows (Not working, proofcheck required)

This wants to be a comprehensive guide for installing Android support on baseport 8 devices, currently the Xperia XA2 series. This procedure has not worked for me, so support is required by someone who got it working.

The steps are the following:

  1. Install on your pc a Windows binary version of lzip and squashfs-tools.
  2. Download a pico version of opengapps from opengapps.org for the ARM64.
  3. Get the /opt/alien/system.img file from the device. You can do so by copying it to the /home/nemo/Downloads directory and accessing the phone via USB in MTP mode.
  4. Choose or create a temporary folder on the PC (let's call it Temp). Unsquash thesystem.img file in a folder called system/ inside the temporary folder: unsquashfs.exe -d yourpath/system.img Temp/system.
  5. Extract the Core directory from the opengapps archive into a Core subdirectory of the Temp directory.
  6. Inside the Core subdirectory on the PC, decompress the following archives using lzip -d archivename: vending-arm, gsfcore-all, gmscore-arm64, gmssetup-all, googleonetimeinitializer-all, googlepartnersetup-all.
  7. Each of the decompressed archives is now in tar format. You can open them with winrar. Each of them contains one or more priv-app directories. If more than one is present, take the one under the nodpi path. Take the contents of the selected priv-app directory, one for each archive (in all cases it is another single directory), and copy them to the system/priv-app directory located inside the Temp/systemdirectory (Temp/system/system/priv-app).
  8. Repack the system into another system.img file: mksquashfs.exe system\ system.img -comp lz4 -Xhc -noappend -no-exports -no-duplicates -no-fragments.
  9. Copy the new system.img file to the /home/nemo/Downloads /home/nemo/Downloads directory on the phone via USB.
  10. Stop Alien Dalvik.
  11. Open a shell on the phone and enter root mode via devel-su.
  12. Rename the old file just in case: mv /opt/alien/system.img /opt/alien/system.img.old.
  13. Copy the new file: cp /home/nemo/Downloads/system.img /opt/alien/.
  14. Restart Alien Dalvik, or reboot the phone, and watch Android support not starting.

What am I doing wrong?

[HowTo] Install Google Play Services on baseport 8 devices from Microsoft Windows (Not working, proofcheck required)

This wants to be a comprehensive guide for installing Android support on baseport 8 devices, currently the Xperia XA2 series. This procedure has not worked for me, so support is required by someone who got it working.

The steps are the following:

  1. Install on your pc a Windows binary version of lzip and squashfs-tools.
  2. Download a pico version of opengapps from opengapps.org for the ARM64.
  3. Get the /opt/alien/system.img file from the device. You can do so by copying it to the /home/nemo/Downloads directory and accessing the phone via USB in MTP mode.
  4. Choose or create a temporary folder on the PC (let's call it Temp). Unsquash thesystem.img file in a folder called system/ inside the temporary folder: unsquashfs.exe -d yourpath/system.img Temp/systemTemp/system yourpath/system.img.
  5. Extract the Core directory from the opengapps archive into a Core subdirectory of the Temp directory.
  6. Inside the Core subdirectory on the PC, decompress the following archives using lzip -d archivename: vending-arm, gsfcore-all, gmscore-arm64, gmssetup-all, googleonetimeinitializer-all, googlepartnersetup-all.
  7. Each of the decompressed archives is now in tar format. You can open them with winrar. Each of them contains one or more priv-app directories. If more than one is present, take the one under the nodpi path. Take the contents of the selected priv-app directory, one for each archive (in all cases it is another single directory), and copy them to the system/priv-app directory located inside the Temp/systemdirectory (Temp/system/system/priv-app).
  8. Repack the system into another system.img file: mksquashfs.exe system\ system.img -comp lz4 -Xhc -noappend -no-exports -no-duplicates -no-fragments.
  9. Copy the new system.img file to the /home/nemo/Downloads directory on the phone via USB.
  10. Stop Alien Dalvik.
  11. Open a shell on the phone and enter root mode via devel-su.
  12. Rename the old file just in case: mv /opt/alien/system.img /opt/alien/system.img.old.
  13. Copy the new file: cp /home/nemo/Downloads/system.img /opt/alien/.
  14. Restart Alien Dalvik, or reboot the phone, and watch Android support not starting.

What am I doing wrong?

[HowTo] Install Google Play Services on baseport 8 devices from Microsoft Windows (Not working, proofcheck required)

This wants to be a comprehensive guide for installing Android support on baseport 8 devices, currently the Xperia XA2 series. This procedure has not worked for me, so support is required by someone who got it working.

The steps are the following:

  1. Install on your pc a Windows binary version of lzip and squashfs-tools.
  2. Download a pico version of opengapps from opengapps.org for the ARM64.
  3. Get the /opt/alien/system.img file from the device. You can do so by copying it to the /home/nemo/Downloads directory and accessing the phone via USB in MTP mode.
  4. Choose or create a temporary folder on the PC (let's call it Temp). Unsquash thesystem.img file in a folder called system/ inside the temporary folder: unsquashfs.exe -d Temp/system yourpath/system.img.
  5. Extract the Core directory from the opengapps archive into a Core subdirectory of the Temp directory.
  6. Inside the Core subdirectory on the PC, decompress the following archives using lzip -d archivename: vending-arm, gsfcore-all, gmscore-arm64, gmssetup-all, googleonetimeinitializer-all, googlepartnersetup-all.
  7. Each of the decompressed archives is now in tar format. You can open them with winrar. Each of them contains one or more priv-app directories. If more than one is present, take the one under the nodpi path. Take the contents of the selected priv-app directory, one for each archive (in all cases it is another single directory), and copy them to the system/priv-app directory located inside the Temp/systemdirectory (Temp/system/system/priv-app).
  8. Repack the system into another system.img file: mksquashfs.exe system\ system.img -comp lz4 -Xhc -noappend -no-exports -no-duplicates -no-fragments.
  9. Copy the new system.img file to the /home/nemo/Downloads directory on the phone via USB.
  10. Stop Alien Dalvik.
  11. Open a shell on the phone and enter root mode via devel-su.
  12. Rename the old file just in case: mv /opt/alien/system.img /opt/alien/system.img.old.
  13. Copy the new file: cp /home/nemo/Downloads/system.img /opt/alien/.
  14. Restart Alien Dalvik, or reboot the phone, and watch Android support not starting.

What am I doing wrong?

Possible fault causes:

  1. The CPU architecture is wrong. I chose ARM64. Is this correct?
  2. The squashfs tool I used does not work correctly. I can unpack the new system.img and it matches the modified system directory. I don't know if it works with the squashfs version used by SailfishOS.
  3. Owner is incorrect. The owner of the new file is nemo, the owner of the original file is root. Can this affect start of Alien Dalvik?

[HowTo] Install Google Play Services on baseport 8 devices from Microsoft Windows (Not working, proofcheck required)

This wants to be a comprehensive guide for installing Android support on baseport 8 devices, currently the Xperia XA2 series. This procedure has not worked for me, so support is required by someone who got it working.

The steps are the following:

  1. Install on your pc a Windows binary version of lzip and squashfs-tools.
  2. Download a pico version of opengapps from opengapps.org for the ARM64.
  3. Get the /opt/alien/system.img file from the device. You can do so by copying it to the /home/nemo/Downloads directory and accessing the phone via USB in MTP mode.
  4. Choose or create a temporary folder on the PC (let's call it Temp). Unsquash thesystem.img file in a folder called system/ inside the temporary folder: unsquashfs.exe -d Temp/system yourpath/system.img.
  5. Extract the Core directory from the opengapps archive into a Core subdirectory of the Temp directory.
  6. Inside the Core subdirectory on the PC, decompress the following archives using lzip -d archivename: vending-arm, gsfcore-all, gmscore-arm64, gmssetup-all, googleonetimeinitializer-all, googlepartnersetup-all.
  7. Each of the decompressed archives is now in tar format. You can open them with winrar. Each of them contains one or more priv-app directories. If more than one is present, take the one under the nodpi path. Take the contents of the selected priv-app directory, one for each archive (in all cases it is another single directory), and copy them to the system/priv-app directory located inside the Temp/systemdirectory (Temp/system/system/priv-app).
  8. Repack the system into another system.img file: mksquashfs.exe system\ system.img -comp lz4 -Xhc -noappend -no-exports -no-duplicates -no-fragments.
  9. Copy the new system.img file to the /home/nemo/Downloads directory on the phone via USB.
  10. Stop Alien Dalvik.
  11. Open a shell on the phone and enter root mode via devel-su.
  12. Rename the old file just in case: mv /opt/alien/system.img /opt/alien/system.img.old.
  13. Copy the new file: cp /home/nemo/Downloads/system.img /opt/alien/.
  14. Restart Alien Dalvik, or reboot the phone, and watch Android support not starting.

What am I doing wrong?

Possible fault causes:

  1. The CPU architecture is wrong. I chose ARM64. Is this correct?
  2. The squashfs tool I used does not work correctly. I can unpack the new system.img and it matches the modified system directory. I don't know if it works with the squashfs version used by SailfishOS.
  3. Owner is incorrect. The owner of the new file is nemo, the owner of the original file is root. Can this affect start of Alien Dalvik?
  4. There is a small mismatch with respect to what said in https://together.jolla.com/question/198500/xperia-xa2-sailfish-x-dont-have-systempriv-app-directory/ . The archive gmscore-arm is rather gmscore-arm64 and the directory and apk inside are not PrebuiltGmsCore but PrebuiltGmsCorePix.

[HowTo] Install Google Play Services on baseport 8 devices from Microsoft Windows (Not working, proofcheck required)

This wants to be a comprehensive guide for installing Android support on baseport 8 devices, currently the Xperia XA2 series. This procedure has not worked for me, so support is required by someone who got it working.

The steps are the following:

  1. Install on your pc a Windows binary version of lzip and squashfs-tools.
  2. Download a pico version of opengapps from opengapps.org for the ARM64.
  3. Get the /opt/alien/system.img file from the device. You can do so by copying it to the /home/nemo/Downloads directory and accessing the phone via USB in MTP mode.
  4. Choose or create a temporary folder on the PC (let's call it Temp). Unsquash thesystem.img file in a folder called system/ inside the temporary folder: unsquashfs.exe -d Temp/system yourpath/system.img.
  5. Extract the Core directory from the opengapps archive into a Core subdirectory of the Temp directory.
  6. Inside the Core subdirectory on the PC, decompress the following archives using lzip -d archivename: vending-arm, gsfcore-all, gmscore-arm64, gmssetup-all, googleonetimeinitializer-all, googlepartnersetup-all.
  7. Each of the decompressed archives is now in tar format. You can open them with winrar. Each of them contains one or more priv-app directories. If more than one is present, take the one under the nodpi path. Take the contents of the selected priv-app directory, one for each archive (in all cases it is another single directory), and copy them to the system/priv-app directory located inside the Temp/systemdirectory (Temp/system/system/priv-app).
  8. Repack the system into another system.img file: mksquashfs.exe system\ system.img -comp lz4 -Xhc -noappend -no-exports -no-duplicates -no-fragments.
  9. Copy the new system.img file to the /home/nemo/Downloads directory on the phone via USB.
  10. Stop Alien Dalvik.
  11. Open a shell on the phone and enter root mode via devel-su.
  12. Rename the old file just in case: mv /opt/alien/system.img /opt/alien/system.img.old.
  13. Copy the new file: cp /home/nemo/Downloads/system.img /opt/alien/.
  14. Restart Alien Dalvik, or reboot the phone, and watch Android support not starting.

What am I doing wrong?

Possible fault causes:

  1. The CPU architecture is wrong. I chose ARM64. arm64. Is this correct?correct? EDIT: Using arm architecture does not change matters.
  2. The squashfs tool I used does not work correctly. I can unpack the new system.img and it matches the modified system directory. I don't know if it works with the squashfs version used by SailfishOS.
  3. Owner is incorrect. The owner of the new file is nemo, the owner of the original file is root. Can this affect start of Alien Dalvik?Dalvik? EDIT: When owner is root the result is the same.
  4. There is a small mismatch with respect to what said in https://together.jolla.com/question/198500/xperia-xa2-sailfish-x-dont-have-systempriv-app-directory/ . The archive gmscore-arm is rather gmscore-arm64 and the directory and apk inside are not PrebuiltGmsCore but PrebuiltGmsCorePix.

[HowTo] Install Google Play Services on baseport 8 devices from Microsoft Windows (Not working, proofcheck required)

This wants to be a comprehensive guide for installing Android support on baseport 8 devices, currently the Xperia XA2 series. This procedure has not worked for me, so support is required by someone who got it working.

The steps are the following:

  1. Install on your pc a Windows binary version of lzip and squashfs-tools.
  2. Download a pico version of opengapps from opengapps.org for the ARM64.
  3. Get the /opt/alien/system.img file from the device. You can do so by copying it to the /home/nemo/Downloads directory and accessing the phone via USB in MTP mode.
  4. Choose or create a temporary folder on the PC (let's call it Temp). Unsquash thesystem.img file in a folder called system/ inside the temporary folder: unsquashfs.exe -d Temp/system yourpath/system.img.
  5. Extract the Core directory from the opengapps archive into a Core subdirectory of the Temp directory.
  6. Inside the Core subdirectory on the PC, decompress the following archives using lzip -d archivename: vending-arm, gsfcore-all, gmscore-arm64, gmssetup-all, googleonetimeinitializer-all, googlepartnersetup-all.
  7. Each of the decompressed archives is now in tar format. You can open them with winrar. Each of them contains one or more priv-app directories. If more than one is present, take the one under the nodpi path. Take the contents of the selected priv-app directory, one for each archive (in all cases it is another single directory), and copy them to the system/priv-app directory located inside the Temp/systemdirectory (Temp/system/system/priv-app).
  8. Repack the system into another system.img file: mksquashfs.exe system\ system.img -comp lz4 -Xhc -noappend -no-exports -no-duplicates -no-fragments.
  9. Copy the new system.img file to the /home/nemo/Downloads directory on the phone via USB.
  10. Stop Alien Dalvik.
  11. Open a shell on the phone and enter root mode via devel-su.
  12. Rename the old file just in case: mv /opt/alien/system.img /opt/alien/system.img.old.
  13. Copy the new file: cp /home/nemo/Downloads/system.img /opt/alien/.
  14. Restart Alien Dalvik, or reboot the phone, and watch Android support not starting.

What am I doing wrong?

Possible fault causes:

  1. The CPU architecture is wrong. I chose arm64. Is this correct? EDIT: Using arm architecture does not change matters.
  2. The squashfs tool I used does not work correctly. I can unpack the new system.img and it matches the modified system directory. I don't know if it works with the squashfs version used by SailfishOS.
  3. Owner is incorrect. The owner of the new file is nemo, the owner of the original file is root. Can this affect start of Alien Dalvik? EDIT: When owner is root the result is the same.
  4. There is a small mismatch with respect to what said in https://together.jolla.com/question/198500/xperia-xa2-sailfish-x-dont-have-systempriv-app-directory/ . The archive gmscore-arm is rather gmscore-arm64 and the directory and apk inside are not PrebuiltGmsCore but PrebuiltGmsCorePix.. This has been changed between 2018 and 2019 (the new version should be a Pixel-specific one). Anybody was successful with a recent opengapps archive?

[HowTo] Install Google Play Services on baseport 8 devices from Microsoft Windows (Not working, proofcheck required)

This wants to be a comprehensive guide for installing Android support on baseport 8 devices, currently the Xperia XA2 series. This procedure has not worked for me, so support is required by someone who got it working.

The steps are the following:

  1. Install on your pc a Windows binary version of lzip and squashfs-tools.
  2. Download a pico version of opengapps from opengapps.org for the ARM64.
  3. Get the /opt/alien/system.img file from the device. You can do so by copying it to the /home/nemo/Downloads directory and accessing the phone via USB in MTP mode.
  4. Choose or create a temporary folder on the PC (let's call it Temp). Unsquash thesystem.img file in a folder called system/ inside the temporary folder: unsquashfs.exe -d Temp/system yourpath/system.img.
  5. Extract the Core directory from the opengapps archive into a Core subdirectory of the Temp directory.
  6. Inside the Core subdirectory on the PC, decompress the following archives using lzip -d archivename: vending-arm, gsfcore-all, gmscore-arm64, gmssetup-all, googleonetimeinitializer-all, googlepartnersetup-all.
  7. Each of the decompressed archives is now in tar format. You can open them with winrar. Each of them contains one or more priv-app directories. If more than one is present, take the one under the nodpi path. Take the contents of the selected priv-app directory, one for each archive (in all cases it is another single directory), and copy them to the system/priv-app directory located inside the Temp/systemdirectory (Temp/system/system/priv-app).
  8. Repack the system into another system.img file: mksquashfs.exe system\ system.img -comp lz4 -Xhc -noappend -no-exports -no-duplicates -no-fragments.
  9. Copy the new system.img file to the /home/nemo/Downloads directory on the phone via USB.
  10. Stop Alien Dalvik.
  11. Open a shell on the phone and enter root mode via devel-su.
  12. Rename the old file just in case: mv /opt/alien/system.img /opt/alien/system.img.old.
  13. Copy the new file: cp /home/nemo/Downloads/system.img /opt/alien/.
  14. Restart Alien Dalvik, or reboot the phone, and watch Android support not starting.

What am I doing wrong?

Possible fault causes:

  1. The CPU architecture is wrong. I chose arm64. Is this correct? EDIT: Using arm architecture does not change matters.
  2. The squashfs tool I used does not work correctly. I can unpack the new system.img and it matches the modified system directory. I don't know if it works with the squashfs version used by SailfishOS.
  3. Owner is incorrect. The owner of the new file is nemo, the owner of the original file is root. Can this affect start of Alien Dalvik? EDIT: When owner is root the result is the same.
  4. There is a small mismatch with respect to what said in https://together.jolla.com/question/198500/xperia-xa2-sailfish-x-dont-have-systempriv-app-directory/ . The archive gmscore-arm is rather gmscore-arm64 and the directory and apk inside are not PrebuiltGmsCore but PrebuiltGmsCorePix. This has been changed between 2018 and 2019 (the new version should be a Pixel-specific one). Anybody was successful with a recent opengapps archive?

[HowTo] Install Google Play Services on baseport 8 devices from Microsoft Windows (Not working, proofcheck required)

This wants to be a comprehensive guide for installing Android support on baseport 8 devices, currently the Xperia XA2 series. This procedure has not worked for me, so support is required by someone who got it working.working. The procedure currently available must be collected from a number of different posts on TJC, mostly vague and missing important details. I tried to sum up what I gathered from them in the following procedure, but could not get Android support to start. Corrections by someone who managed to get Play Services working are encouraged.

The steps are the following:

  1. Install on your pc a Windows binary version of lzip and squashfs-tools.
  2. Download a pico version of opengapps from opengapps.org for the ARM64.
  3. Get the /opt/alien/system.img file from the device. You can do so by copying it to the /home/nemo/Downloads directory and accessing the phone via USB in MTP mode.
  4. Choose or create a temporary folder on the PC (let's call it Temp). Unsquash thesystem.img file in a folder called system/ inside the temporary folder: unsquashfs.exe -d Temp/system yourpath/system.img.
  5. Extract the Core directory from the opengapps archive into a Core subdirectory of the Temp directory.
  6. Inside the Core subdirectory on the PC, decompress the following archives using lzip -d archivename: vending-arm, gsfcore-all, gmscore-arm64, gmssetup-all, googleonetimeinitializer-all, googlepartnersetup-all.
  7. Each of the decompressed archives is now in tar format. You can open them with winrar. Each of them contains one or more priv-app directories. If more than one is present, take the one under the nodpi path. Take the contents of the selected priv-app directory, one for each archive (in all cases it is another single directory), and copy them to the system/priv-app directory located inside the Temp/systemdirectory (Temp/system/system/priv-app).
  8. Repack the system into another system.img file: mksquashfs.exe system\ system.img -comp lz4 -Xhc -noappend -no-exports -no-duplicates -no-fragments.
  9. Copy the new system.img file to the /home/nemo/Downloads directory on the phone via USB.
  10. Stop Alien Dalvik.
  11. Open a shell on the phone and enter root mode via devel-su.
  12. Rename the old file just in case: mv /opt/alien/system.img /opt/alien/system.img.old.
  13. Copy the new file: cp /home/nemo/Downloads/system.img /opt/alien/.
  14. Restart Alien Dalvik, or reboot the phone, and watch Android support not starting.

What am I doing wrong?

Possible fault causes:

  1. The CPU architecture is wrong. I chose arm64. Is this correct? EDIT: Using arm architecture does not change matters.
  2. The squashfs tool I used does not work correctly. I can unpack the new system.img and it matches the modified system directory. I don't know if it works with the squashfs version used by SailfishOS.
  3. Owner is incorrect. The owner of the new file is nemo, the owner of the original file is root. Can this affect start of Alien Dalvik? EDIT: When owner is root the result is the same.
  4. There is a small mismatch with respect to what said in https://together.jolla.com/question/198500/xperia-xa2-sailfish-x-dont-have-systempriv-app-directory/ . The directory and apk inside are not PrebuiltGmsCore but PrebuiltGmsCorePix. This has been changed between 2018 and 2019 (the new version should be a Pixel-specific one). Anybody was successful with a recent opengapps archive?

[HowTo] Install Google Play Services on baseport 8 devices from Microsoft Windows (Not working, proofcheck required)

This wants to be a comprehensive guide for installing Android support on baseport 8 devices, currently the Xperia XA2 series. This procedure has not worked for me, so support is required by someone who got it working. The procedure currently available must be collected from a number of different posts on TJC, mostly vague and missing important details. I tried to sum up what I gathered from them in the following procedure, but could not get Android support to start. Corrections by someone who managed to get Play Services working are encouraged.

The steps are the following:

  1. Install on your pc a Windows binary version of lzip and squashfs-tools.
  2. Download a pico version of opengapps from opengapps.org for the ARM64.
  3. Get the /opt/alien/system.img file from the device. You can do so by copying it to the /home/nemo/Downloads directory and accessing the phone via USB in MTP mode.
  4. Choose or create a temporary folder on the PC (let's call it Temp). Unsquash thesystem.img file in a folder called system/ inside the temporary folder: unsquashfs.exe -d Temp/system yourpath/system.img.
  5. Extract the Core directory from the opengapps archive into a Core subdirectory of the Temp directory.
  6. Inside the Core subdirectory on the PC, decompress the following archives using lzip -d archivename: vending-arm, gsfcore-all, gmscore-arm64, gmssetup-all, googleonetimeinitializer-all, googlepartnersetup-all.
  7. Each of the decompressed archives is now in tar format. You can open them with winrar. Each of them contains one or more priv-app directories. If more than one is present, take the one under the nodpi path. Take the contents of the selected priv-app directory, one for each archive (in all cases it is another single directory), and copy them to the system/priv-app directory located inside the Temp/systemdirectory (Temp/system/system/priv-app).
  8. Repack the system into another system.img file: mksquashfs.exe system\ system.img -comp lz4 -Xhc -noappend -no-exports -no-duplicates -no-fragments.
  9. Copy the new system.img file to the /home/nemo/Downloads directory on the phone via USB.
  10. Stop Alien Dalvik.
  11. Open a shell on the phone and enter root mode via devel-su.
  12. Rename the old file just in case: mv /opt/alien/system.img /opt/alien/system.img.old.
  13. Copy the new file: cp /home/nemo/Downloads/system.img /opt/alien/.
  14. Restart Alien Dalvik, or reboot the phone, and watch Android support not starting.

What am I doing wrong?

Possible fault causes:

  1. The CPU architecture is wrong. I chose arm64. Is this correct? EDIT: Using arm architecture does not change matters.
  2. The squashfs tool I used does not work correctly. I can unpack the new system.img and it matches the modified system directory. I don't know if it works with the squashfs version used by SailfishOS.
  3. Owner is incorrect. The owner of the new file is nemo, the owner of the original file is root. Can this affect start of Alien Dalvik? EDIT: When owner is root the result is the same.
  4. There is a small mismatch with respect to what said in https://together.jolla.com/question/198500/xperia-xa2-sailfish-x-dont-have-systempriv-app-directory/ . The directory and apk inside are not PrebuiltGmsCore but PrebuiltGmsCorePix. This has been changed between 2018 and 2019 (the new version should be a Pixel-specific one). Anybody was successful with a recent opengapps archive?

EDIT: I just checked and found that file attributes are all messed up. That's obvious since Windows file systems don't have Unix attributes. Anybody can suggest a way to keep the files in a Unix-like file system, possibly on an external device? Maybe an ext4-formatted USB stick could do the job.

[HowTo] Install Google Play Services on baseport 8 devices from Microsoft Windows (Not working, proofcheck required)

This wants to be a comprehensive guide for installing Android support on baseport 8 devices, currently the Xperia XA2 series. This procedure has not worked for me, so support is required by someone who got it working. The procedure currently available must be collected from a number of different posts on TJC, mostly vague and missing important details. I tried to sum up what I gathered from them in the following procedure, but could not get Android support to start. Corrections by someone who managed to get Play Services working are encouraged.

The steps are the following:

  1. Install on your pc a Windows binary version of lzip and squashfs-tools.
  2. Download a pico version of opengapps from opengapps.org for the ARM64.
  3. Get the /opt/alien/system.img file from the device. You can do so by copying it to the /home/nemo/Downloads directory and accessing the phone via USB in MTP mode.
  4. Choose or create a temporary folder on the PC (let's call it Temp). Unsquash thesystem.img file in a folder called system/ inside the temporary folder: unsquashfs.exe -d Temp/system yourpath/system.img.
  5. Extract the Core directory from the opengapps archive into a Core subdirectory of the Temp directory.
  6. Inside the Core subdirectory on the PC, decompress the following archives using lzip -d archivename: vending-arm, gsfcore-all, gmscore-arm64, gmssetup-all, googleonetimeinitializer-all, googlepartnersetup-all.
  7. Each of the decompressed archives is now in tar format. You can open them with winrar. Each of them contains one or more priv-app directories. If more than one is present, take the one under the nodpi path. Take the contents of the selected priv-app directory, one for each archive (in all cases it is another single directory), and copy them to the system/priv-app directory located inside the Temp/systemdirectory (Temp/system/system/priv-app).
  8. Repack the system into another system.img file: mksquashfs.exe system\ system.img -comp lz4 -Xhc -noappend -no-exports -no-duplicates -no-fragments.
  9. Copy the new system.img file to the /home/nemo/Downloads directory on the phone via USB.
  10. Stop Alien Dalvik.
  11. Open a shell on the phone and enter root mode via devel-su.
  12. Rename the old file just in case: mv /opt/alien/system.img /opt/alien/system.img.old.
  13. Copy the new file: cp /home/nemo/Downloads/system.img /opt/alien/.
  14. Restart Alien Dalvik, or reboot the phone, and watch Android support not starting.

What am I doing wrong?

Possible fault causes:

  1. EDIT: The CPU architecture most likely cause for malfunction is wrong. Windows not preserving Unix file permissions. I chose arm64. Is this correct? EDIT: Using arm architecture does not change matters.
  2. The squashfs tool I used does not work correctly. can't think of an easy workaround for this. Maybe it would be easier to carry out all the same operations on the phone itself, provided I can unpack the new system.img and it matches the modified system directory. I don't know if it works with the squashfs version used by SailfishOS.
  3. Owner is incorrect. The owner of the new file is nemo, the owner of the original file is root. Can this affect start of Alien Dalvik? EDIT: When owner is root the result is the same.
  4. There is a small mismatch with respect to what said in https://together.jolla.com/question/198500/xperia-xa2-sailfish-x-dont-have-systempriv-app-directory/ . The directory and apk inside are not PrebuiltGmsCore but PrebuiltGmsCorePix. This has been changed between 2018 and 2019 (the new version should be a Pixel-specific one). Anybody was successful with a recent opengapps archive?

EDIT: I just checked and found that file attributes are all messed up. That's obvious since Windows file systems don't have Unix attributes. Anybody can suggest a way to keep the files in a Unix-like file system, possibly on an external device? Maybe an ext4-formatted USB stick could do the job.get lzip and squashfs-tools running on it.

[HowTo] Install Google Play Services on baseport 8 devices from Microsoft Windows (Not working, proofcheck required)

This wants to be a comprehensive guide for installing Android support on baseport 8 devices, currently the Xperia XA2 series. This procedure has not worked for me, so support is required by someone who got it working. The procedure currently available must be collected from a number of different posts on TJC, mostly vague and missing important details. I tried to sum up what I gathered from them in the following procedure, but could not get Android support to start. Corrections by someone who managed to get Play Services working are encouraged.

The steps are the following:

  1. Install on your pc a Windows binary version of lzip and squashfs-tools.
  2. Download a pico version of opengapps from opengapps.org for the ARM64.
  3. Get the /opt/alien/system.img file from the device. You can do so by copying it to the /home/nemo/Downloads directory and accessing the phone via USB in MTP mode.
  4. Choose or create a temporary folder on the PC (let's call it Temp). Unsquash thesystem.img file in a folder called system/ inside the temporary folder: unsquashfs.exe -d Temp/system yourpath/system.img.
  5. Extract the Core directory from the opengapps archive into a Core subdirectory of the Temp directory.
  6. Inside the Core subdirectory on the PC, decompress the following archives using lzip -d archivename: vending-arm, gsfcore-all, gmscore-arm64, gmssetup-all, googleonetimeinitializer-all, googlepartnersetup-all.
  7. Each of the decompressed archives is now in tar format. You can open them with winrar. Each of them contains one or more priv-app directories. If more than one is present, take the one under the nodpi path. Take the contents of the selected priv-app directory, one for each archive (in all cases it is another single directory), and copy them to the system/priv-app directory located inside the Temp/systemdirectory (Temp/system/system/priv-app).
  8. Repack the system into another system.img file: mksquashfs.exe system\ system.img -comp lz4 -Xhc -noappend -no-exports -no-duplicates -no-fragments.
  9. Copy the new system.img file to the /home/nemo/Downloads directory on the phone via USB.
  10. Stop Alien Dalvik.
  11. Open a shell on the phone and enter root mode via devel-su.
  12. Rename the old file just in case: mv /opt/alien/system.img /opt/alien/system.img.old.
  13. Copy the new file: cp /home/nemo/Downloads/system.img /opt/alien/.
  14. Restart Alien Dalvik, or reboot the phone, and watch Android support not starting.

What am I doing wrong?

EDIT: The most likely cause for malfunction is Windows not preserving Unix file permissions. I can't think of an easy workaround for this. Maybe it would be easier to carry out all the same operations on the phone itself, provided I can get lzip and squashfs-tools running on it.

EDIT 2: I have thought of a possible workaround. I can try appending to the system.img, rather than unpacking and repacking it. I will try it as soon as I can.

[HowTo] Install Google Play Services on baseport 8 devices from Microsoft Windows (Not working, proofcheck required)working)

This wants to be a comprehensive guide for installing Android support on baseport 8 devices, currently the Xperia XA2 series. This procedure has not worked for me, so support is required by someone who got it working. The procedure currently available must be collected from a number of different posts on TJC, mostly vague and missing important details. I tried to sum up what I gathered from them in the following procedure, but could not get Android support to start. Corrections by someone who managed to get Play Services working are encouraged.

The steps are the following:

  1. Install on your pc a Windows binary version of lzip and squashfs-tools.
  2. Download a pico version of opengapps from opengapps.org for the ARM64.
  3. Get the /opt/alien/system.img file from the device. You can do so by copying it to the /home/nemo/Downloads directory and accessing the phone via USB in MTP mode.
  4. Choose or create a temporary folder on the PC (let's call it Temp). Unsquash thesystem.img file in a folder called system/ inside the temporary folder: unsquashfs.exe -d Temp/system yourpath/system.img.
  5. Extract the Core directory from the opengapps archive into a Core subdirectory of the Temp directory.
  6. Inside the Core subdirectory on the PC, decompress the following archives using lzip -d archivename: vending-arm, gsfcore-all, gmscore-arm64, gmssetup-all, googleonetimeinitializer-all, googlepartnersetup-all.
  7. Each of the decompressed archives is now in tar format. You can open them with winrar. Each of them contains one or more priv-app directories. If more than one is present, take the one under the nodpi path. Take the contents of the selected priv-app directory, one for each archive (in all cases it is another single directory), and copy them to the system/priv-app directory located inside the Temp/systemdirectory (Temp/system/system/priv-app).
  8. Repack the system into another system.img file: mksquashfs.exe system\ system.img -comp lz4 -Xhc -noappend -no-exports -no-duplicates -no-fragments.
  9. Copy the new system.img file to the /home/nemo/Downloads directory on the phone via USB.
  10. Stop Alien Dalvik.
  11. Open a shell on the phone and enter root mode via devel-su.
  12. Rename the old file just in case: mv /opt/alien/system.img /opt/alien/system.img.old.
  13. Copy the new file: cp /home/nemo/Downloads/system.img /opt/alien/.
  14. Restart Alien Dalvik, or reboot the phone, and watch Android support not starting.

What am I doing wrong?

EDIT: The most likely cause for malfunction is Windows not preserving Unix file permissions. I can't think of an easy workaround for this. Maybe it There would be easier to carry out all the same operations on the phone itself, provided I can get lzip and squashfs-tools running on it.

EDIT 2: I have thought of a possible workaround. I can try appending to the the immediate solution of merging the files to the existing system.img, were it not that mksquashfs has been written in the moronic way that if it detects two identical directories, rather than unpacking adding the new files to the existing directory, it will create a new directory with a different name and repacking put the new files in it. I will try it as soon as I can.If somebody has a workaround for this idiotic behaviour of mksquashfs, suggestions are welcome.