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Installing Mobile Defense as a system application

Description

This tutorial outlines the necessary steps required to install Mobile Defense as a system application. When Mobile Defense is installed as a system application it can auto-enable your location providers (both Wireless and GPS) as needed. This is especially helpful if your device has been lost or stolen, and one or both providers is currently disabled. By following the steps below, you'll also discover that Mobile Defense cannot be uninstalled.

As far as application updates go, nothing changes. You will still receive notifications when updates are available and have the ability to update via the Market as needed.

Disclaimer: This tutorial is intended for advanced Android users only and should be performed at your own risk. We recommend doing a full backup of your phone using Nandroid prior to performing this tutorial.

Prerequisites

Install Instructions

Note, the following steps are provided to work for the broadest number of users. We realize that some steps may not necessarily be required for some users depending on their setup; however, these additional steps should not have a negative effect.

Step 1: Uninstall current version of Mobile Defense if you have it installed.

adb uninstall com.neevo.mobiledefense

Step 2: Download the latest Mobile Defense APK file.

Step 3: Open command prompt or terminal window and start a remote shell.

adb shell

Step 4: Switch to the root user.

su

Step 5: Remount the system partition as read-write.

mount -o remount,rw -t yaffs2 /dev/block/mtdblock3 /system

Step 6: Change permissions on the system app directory so that you can add new APKs.

chmod 777 /system/app

Step 7: Exit from root (Step 4).

exit

Step 8: Exit out of the remote shell.

exit

Step 9: Finally, install Mobile Defense as a system application. Make sure your path for the APK file is correct. The example below assumes you are in the directory where you downloaded the APK in Step 2.

adb push com.neevo.mobiledefense.apk /system/app

Congratulations! If you made it through all of the steps above, Mobile Defense should now be installed as a system application.

Cleanup Instructions

Step 10: Open command prompt or terminal window and start a remote shell.

adb shell

Step 11: Switch to the root user.

su

Step 12: Change permissions on the system app directory back to default.

chmod 755 /system/app

Step 13: Remount the system partition as read-only.

mount -o remount,ro -t yaffs2 /dev/block/mtdblock3 /system

Step 14: Exit from root (Step 11).

exit

Step 15: Exit out of the remote shell.

exit

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Comments (11)

Jan 30, 2010
ian said...
If you don't have GPS on, and you install the "System" version, android will prompt you with a yes/no box (privacy).
Jan 31, 2010
Stuart Saunders said...
This should only occur if you have Mobile Defense installed as a system app and the wireless network location provider is disabled. There is nothing we can do about this warning, it's built into the Android OS and displayed anytime "Use wireless networks" is checked. Note, this is not caused by the GPS being disabled.
Feb 01, 2010
Russ said...
I'm running cyanogen 4.2.14.1 with my apps auto installing on a partition of my memory card. Will this affect that?
Feb 01, 2010
Stuart Saunders said...
@Russ I'm running Cyanogen 4.2.12, apps2sd and 10MB GPU hack with Mobile Defense installed as a system app. Everything works fine... Please use the support forum if you have further questions: http://support.mobiledefense.com
Feb 02, 2010
Don Richards said...
That worked Thanks! I'm running Cyanogen Mod 4.2... with App2SD. This originally broke MobileDefense. Once I followed these steps the Mobile Defense Prompt came up and asked if I want to protect my phone.
Feb 05, 2010
Emil Sit said...
Should one remove the global write permissions for /system/app (i.e., revert step 6) after installing in step 9? Or does MobileDefense automatically revert this after starting up?
Feb 06, 2010
Stuart Saunders said...
@Emil The system app install steps were previously updated on the forum and we forgot to add the cleanup instructions to the blog post. Thanks for the heads up! Everything should now be up to date. For further discussion see this thread: http://support.mobiledefense.com/viewtopic.php?id=569
Feb 16, 2010
Jesse said...
Typo - cleanup instructions should be mounted as ro (readwrite) not rw (readwrite)
mount -o remount,ro -t yaffs2 /dev/block/mtdblock3 /system
Feb 27, 2010
Sud said...
I installed MD as system app. Since I did not install from the market, it does not show up as 'installed' on the market. How will I receive any updates if the market link is not restored?
Thanks. Awesome app. Better than anything else out there IMHO.
Feb 27, 2010
Stuart Saunders said...
@Sud Thanks for the kind words! Mobile Defense has its own update functionality independent of the Market. http://goo.gl/oBPQ
Feb 27, 2010
Sud said...
Good to know. Thanks!!!

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