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Install GApps to Access Google Play Store

OpenGApps, MindTheGapps, and NikGapps are third-party open-source projects which automate the collection and generation of Google Play Services applications (including the Play Store) to install on devices under your control. More information about each project can be found online:

As part of Corellium's Android devices, we have included a streamlined way to download and install GApps files onto your device.

  • OpenGApps is available for quick installation on Android 7 through Android 12.

  • MindTheGapps is available for quick installation on Android 13 and Android 15 (rooted devices only).

Guides for advanced installation of OpenGApps, MindTheGapps, and NikGapps are included below.

Quick Installation of OpenGApps (Android 7-12) or MindTheGapps (Android 13-15)​

The button to install the package is located on the Apps tab, shown below. For this button to be enabled, the device must be powered on and not paused.

  1. Click Apps, then click INSTALL under OpenGApps/Gapps.

    connect page

  2. ACCEPT the Terms and Conditions.

    accept terms

  3. The installation will take a few minutes. Once the installation is complete, the device will reboot and the button will indicate that the package is installed. You will be able to interact with Google Play Services, sign in to the Play Store, and install applications directly from the Play Store.

    installed

Advanced Installation of OpenGApps/MindTheGapps​

note

If you flash something that is not compatible with the Android version of the device or contains untested buggy scripting, you may render the device unbootable. We recommend that you create a snapshot before running flash-update.sh.

note

Advanced Installation of OpenGApps and MindTheGapps is only possible on "Rooted" Android devices.

If you would like to install something other than the default package which is installed via quick install, you may utilize the underlying utilities for flashing the archives. The default package for OpenGApps is the pico variant, and the default package for MindTheGapps is the February 25, 2024 release.

Push the archive you want to flash, utilizing adb or the file browser tab, to the device at /data/local/tmp/.

Get a shell through either adb or the console tab, then execute the flash-update.sh script with the target archive as the argument.

You may optionally pass a second argument, a device build property, to fool the device into thinking it is not an emulator.

/system/bin/flash-update.sh /data/local/tmp/custom-archive.zip google/flame/flame:10/QQ3A.200705.002/6506677:user/release-keys__2020-07-05

If this does not work, you may reference the boilerplate /system/bin/flash-update.sh file for what is being replaced, remounted, and run - which may need to be tweaked for the archive you’re attempting to flash.

Installation of NikGapps​

warning

If you flash something that is not compatible with the Android version of the device or contains untested buggy scripting, you may render the device unbootable. We recommend that you create a snapshot before running flash-update.sh.

note

Installation of NikGapps is only possible on "Rooted" Android devices.

NikGapps require some additional package modifications before it can be successfully installed on a Corellium Android device. Once you've downloaded the NikGapps package that you want to install, rename the file to nikgapps.zip. Then extract, modify, and update certain scripts:

$ 7z x nikgapps.zip customize.sh common/nikgapps_functions.sh META-INF/com/google/android/update-binary
$ sed -i '/mtg_mount/s/^#//g ; /begin_mounting/s/^/#/g ; /begin_unmounting/s/^/#/g' customize.sh
$ sed -i 's/\/etc\/fstab/\/vendor\/etc\/fstab\.ranchu/g ; s#/etc/recovery\.fstab#/vendor/etc/fstab.ranchu#g ; /dynamic_partitions=\"true\"/s/^/#/g' common/nikgapps_functions.sh
$ sed -i 's/BOOTMODE=true/BOOTMODE=false/g' META-INF/com/google/android/update-binary
$ 7z a nikgapps.zip customize.sh common/nikgapps_functions.sh META-INF/com/google/android/update-binary

Push the archive, utilizing adb or the file browser tab, to the device at /data/local/tmp/.

Get a shell through either adb or the console tab, then execute the flash-update.sh script with the target archive as the argument.

You may optionally pass a second argument, a device build property, to fool the device into thinking it is not an emulator.

Troubleshooting​

If your appliance is on-site and you’re seeing a “Download Failed” error, please make sure that your device can access the aws bucket.

installed

In the VM console, run:

busybox telnet s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com 443

If this call fails, please contact your network/firewall admins and ask them to enable the VMs to access s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com 443