Google Market running on Kobo Vox

[mr_nobody]

Excellent, thanks again.

[Odieman]

I get an error purchasing new apps. However,I can buy them on the computer and they will be sent to the Vox.

[zazou]

thank you so much!

[hieronymos]

In fact I wouldn't count on purchasing too much until there is a stable custom ROM with market support rolling. Better keep purchasing through SlideME and AndroidPit. Who knows what quirks future Kobo updates might bring.

[mr_nobody]

I had no problem purchasing an app directly on the device.

[Jemison]

danifunker & hieronymos,

Thank you! I followed your instructions last night and my Vox is now operating just as I had expected it would when I first purchased it ! This is a very exciting development.

I have two questions:

1) I'd like to install google currents, and danifunker - you said you copied files from the zip to /etc and /framework. On what filesystem are /etc and /framework? When I try to copy, I get an error that the filesystem is ro - yet I can't figure out from the mount command where they are.

2) Now that our Voxs are "googlized" - any advice on how to protect the time spent so that we have any easy way of returning to this state should an update be released from Kobo?

I'm very happy and I appreciate all the time you've invested in this.

[danifunker]

Originally Posted by Jemison

danifunker & hieronymos,

Thank you! I followed your instructions last night and my Vox is now operating just as I had expected it would when I first purchased it ! This is a very exciting development.

I have two questions:

1) I'd like to install google currents, and danifunker - you said you copied files from the zip to /etc and /framework. On what filesystem are /etc and /framework? When I try to copy, I get an error that the filesystem is ro - yet I can't figure out from the mount command where they are.

2) Now that our Voxs are "googlized" - any advice on how to protect the time spent so that we have any easy way of returning to this state should an update be released from Kobo?

I'm very happy and I appreciate all the time you've invested in this.

I recommend using a paid software called 'Root explorer' it's a file manager GUI software, can be found here: https://market.android.com/details?i...explorer&hl=en since it allows an easy way to mount the /system partition as Read/Write (R/W)

I copied the files in /system/etc/permissions, as well as the /system/framework/com.google.android.maps.jar and adjusted the permissions to 644 (owner read/write, group read, everyone read).

I did get currents to run! It's a little slow on the Kobo, but functional. Please note, I didn't use the v6 of the framework (That was from the froyo release) instead I used v7. The only app from v6 I needed was GooglePartnerSetup.apk

PS, in regards to protection... don't delete any files from /system, if you want to remove apps from the launcher, just rename them to .bak. If you have to change any files in /system then copy the file then rename the original file to .bak and then rename the copied file to a new filename. That preserves the original timestamp (for the paranoid...)

[hieronymos]

Originally Posted by Jemison

any advice on how to protect the time spent so that we have any easy way of returning to this state should an update be released from Kobo?

I'm not sure what you mean but
a) you could mean that Kobo was working against its customers on the market question. That isn't true. There simply was a bug somewhere deep down in the operating system that prevented communication between the Google Framework on the Vox and the Google servers. It is Google who prevents Kobo from distributing the market, not the other way around. What you find on XDA is mostly piracy - only the Cyanogen guys are officially tolerated (in a written statement) to distribute the copyrighted non-open-source Google Apps.
b) You could mean that after an update you'll have to install the Market again. That's true. In all updates we have received, Kobo has sent the whole firmware. That means that apart from your data (/data, /sdcard and /extsd), everything gets completely wiped and reapplied (yes, up to the bootloader). This means that rooting, deleting and whatever you do on /system is completely meaningless, because it will be overwritten anyway. It also means that doing such things do not affect in any way updates. Of course, nobody can guarantee that Kobo won't change for the 'patch method' where only punctual files get replaced - in which case all that rooting, moving, disabling and Google Apps installs could lead to a mess (although Kobo's recovery system is quite advanced and will most likely simply restore the Vox to pristine state - as long as you don't touch the bootloader, the kernel, the recovery partition and the cache).
If you want to be completely sure not to mess anything up in /system, don't touch it. Or disable ("freeze") system apps, rather than moving them around or deleting them. You can do that over adb without having rooted (pm disable). The data for what is allowed to run and what not is saved on /data so a settings-activated factory reset deletes these settings.
c) As for the time spent, Kobo knows about the MAC address issue (the one that prevents the Vox and Google to communicate). That is why nobody here actually dug in deep enough to decompile the GoogleFrameworkService, change it, recompile and sign it. I'm actually quite positive that the fix is on the way and when that is fixed we might just install all packages out of the Cyanogen zip. Chances are, when an update comes out, it will be way easier.

[Jemison]

Originally Posted by hieronymos

I'm not sure what you mean but
a) you could mean that Kobo was working against its customers on the market question. That isn't true. There simply was a bug somewhere deep down in the operating system that prevented communication between the Google Framework on the Vox and the Google servers. It is Google who prevents Kobo from distributing the market, not the other way around. What you find on XDA is mostly piracy - only the Cyanogen guys are officially tolerated (in a written statement) to distribute the copyrighted non-open-source Google Apps.
b) You could mean that after an update you'll have to install the Market again. That's true. In all updates we have received, Kobo has sent the whole firmware. That means that apart from your data (/data, /sdcard and /extsd), everything gets completely wiped and reapplied (yes, up to the bootloader). This means that rooting, deleting and whatever you do on /system is completely meaningless, because it will be overwritten anyway. It also means that doing such things do not affect in any way updates. Of course, nobody can guarantee that Kobo won't change for the 'patch method' where only punctual files get replaced - in which case all that rooting, moving, disabling and Google Apps installs could lead to a mess (although Kobo's recovery system is quite advanced and will most likely simply restore the Vox to pristine state - as long as you don't touch the bootloader, the kernel, the recovery partition and the cache).
If you want to be completely sure not to mess anything up in /system, don't touch it. Or disable ("freeze") system apps, rather than moving them around or deleting them. You can do that over adb without having rooted (pm disable). The data for what is allowed to run and what not is saved on /data so a settings-activated factory reset deletes these settings.
c) As for the time spent, Kobo knows about the MAC address issue (the one that prevents the Vox and Google to communicate). That is why nobody here actually dug in deep enough to decompile the GoogleFrameworkService, change it, recompile and sign it. I'm actually quite positive that the fix is on the way and when that is fixed we might just install all packages out of the Cyanogen zip. Chances are, when an update comes out, it will be way easier.

Yeah, I'm referring to your item b), but I wasn't aware of c). Sounds like c) would make us all happy. But I'm delighted with the progress made so far - it really improves my Vox user experience.

[jefftheworld]

To ensure you don't lost anything I recommend using a nice backup program (Titanium Backup) to backup all apps and settings. You can even set it on a schedule so you can automatically backup stuff over time.

[hieronymos]

I had luck with the Sync Adapters from the Cyanogen 7 package. Calendar and Contacts sync nicely now, without Exchange. Maps still has no location but *&?$ it.
The whole thread will be obsolete when the MAC address fix, which I now know exists, will come out. There will only be need to install the packages directly from the Cyanogen 7 zip. Unfortunately, we'll not be able to apply it as an update.zip, so users will have to go the same ways (rooting or adb).

[jefftheworld]

I don't know if there's any interest here, but I could put together a little script to automatically do the adb operation. People would have to download and install the android SDK, but at least that way people who aren't comfortable on the command line can still do it easily.

[Cdesja5]

I would certainly be interested in anything that makes the process quicker/simpler...as would many others who don't feel as comfortable with scripts etc. What you've put together so far is excellent and greatly appreciated!

[mcrmama]

I can't seem to install the market. I get an error message that there is a parsing error with the package. I have rooted, set up my google account and installed the framework.

Jodi

[danifunker]

Originally Posted by hieronymos

I had luck with the Sync Adapters from the Cyanogen 7 package. Calendar and Contacts sync nicely now, without Exchange. Maps still has no location but *&?$ it.
The whole thread will be obsolete when the MAC address fix, which I now know exists, will come out. There will only be need to install the packages directly from the Cyanogen 7 zip. Unfortunately, we'll not be able to apply it as an update.zip, so users will have to go the same ways (rooting or adb).

I'm not 100% sure this will be true. We haven't modified ANY of the system applications packed by Kobo themself. All we have done was added some files to the system folder.

Do you have a newer update.zip we can check with?