I've been poking around the filesystem of my freshly rooted MID9742. I see the .apk files in \system\app. I assume that's flash memory and not part of the ROM. So why can't I just copy Google's googleplay.apk (or whatever it's called) into that directory (on the device) to get google play ? Why do I need to modify the binaries in the ROM & risk screwing up the drivers as so many here have done?
Do I need to modify my ROM to install GooglePlay ?
- Thread starter apchar
- Start date
- Jun 16, 2012
- 2,871
- 986
You can, but copying just Phonesky.apk (the name of the Play Store file) won't work. The Play Store also needs at a minimum some four or five other files to have it work properly, including the Google apps framework. Installing Clockworkmod, as I mentioned doing in your post on Generation 3 Technical, will allow you to install an ICS Google apps package from Goo.im Downloads - Browsing gapps and minimize the chances of encountering problems.
After installing the Play Store, you can then change your build.prop and add some missing XML files to improve app compatibility. While not essential, doing this will allow you to download certain apps you couldn't download before, like Facebook and Angry Birds. After I did the install of the Google Apps, I removed the Gallery app included in the ROM, since Google provides its own with some added features. You don't have to remove that either if you don't want to. It will simply mean you have two gallery apps.
After installing the Play Store, you can then change your build.prop and add some missing XML files to improve app compatibility. While not essential, doing this will allow you to download certain apps you couldn't download before, like Facebook and Angry Birds. After I did the install of the Google Apps, I removed the Gallery app included in the ROM, since Google provides its own with some added features. You don't have to remove that either if you don't want to. It will simply mean you have two gallery apps.
