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System partition is read only. Updates in modern android are not file based but block based (to allow dm-verity to work, since before and after each update ever
by dmitrygr 9y ago
System partition is read only. Updates in modern android are not file based but block based (to allow dm-verity to work, since before and after each update every block's content is guaranteed). If you remount /system as read write even once, updates can no longer apply, since block diffs applied to a filesystem different than expected will almost certainly do bad things.
Any full uninstall of a system app would require remounting /system as rw.
What is your beef with "disabling"? Under the hood it is the same thing as uninstall, minus the file removal or the actual apk. App doesn't run, has no permissions, is never loaded/mapped into RAM.
- altfredd 9y ago> Any full uninstall of a system app would require remounting /system as rw. Why do Google Apps have to be installed to the system partition anyway? I have tried several email clients and image viewers from Google's app store, — all of them work fine without being system apps.
- dmitrygr 9y agoSo will they be present after a full device reset. The alternative's to download them after reset. But that would not always work if you were in an area with a bad connection.
- kllrnohj 9y agoThe system partition is simply the factory image, nothing more nothing less. It doesn't inherently mean privileged, either. There's 2 different app locations in the system partition, 1 for real system apps with system privileges (/system/priv-app) and one for just preinstalled stuff with the same privileges you'd get from installing from the play store (/system/app)