Device Owner App

A utility application designed for Sonim XP5800 and XP3800 devices (Android 8.1) to facilitate local app installation without a constant ADB connection.

These devices restrict app installation, allowing only ADB or Device Owner/Admin based installs. This app acts as a Device Owner (or as a Dhizuku client) to bypass those restrictions and install APK and XAPK files directly on-device.

Features

• Install APKs: Directly install standard .apk files.
• Install XAPKs: Supports installing .xapk (and .zip) bundles containing Split APKs. Uses robust ZipFile processing to handle various compression types.
• Dhizuku support: Only one app on a device can be the Device Owner. If you want more than one privileged app, install Dhizuku as the Device Owner and grant it permission — this app will then route privileged operations through Dhizuku's binder, leaving the Device Owner slot free for Dhizuku to share with other clients.
• App list with search & filter: Searchable list of installed apps (matches package name or label, case-insensitive) with User / System / All filter toggles.
• Progress UI: Visual feedback during installation, preventing "App Not Responding" errors on large files.
• Error Logging: Detailed error logs are saved to Android/data/com.example.deviceownerapp/files/app_errors.log. On install failures the error dialog points to this file.
• Permissions Management: Allows granting or denying runtime permissions for installed apps.
• Admin Management: Easy uninstallation and admin removal via the main interface.
• Self-Update: Built-in feature to check for updates and self-install them while retaining Device Owner status.

Usage

1. Installation:

   • Download Latest Release
   • Install via ADB for the first time: adb install -t -r -g DeviceAdminApp.apk
   • Important: Remove the SIM card before setting the device owner. Sonim devices treat the SIM as an account and may block the command if present.
   • Set it as Device Owner:

     adb shell dpm set-device-owner com.example.deviceownerapp/.DeviceAdmin

   • Dhizuku route (only if you need another privileged app to coexist): install Dhizuku, make Dhizuku the Device Owner with the same dpm command for its package, then open this app and tap Connect Dhizuku.

2. Troubleshooting:

   • If existing accounts (Google, etc.) prevent setting Device Owner, list them with adb shell dumpsys account and uninstall the apps providing them (Sonim units have no account UI in Settings).
   • If the status banner reads "No Privileges — click here", tap it for the setup instructions.

3. Installing apps:

   • Option A: Open the app and tap Install APK / XAPK to pick a file.
   • Option B: Open an APK/XAPK in a file manager and choose this app as the handler.

4. Uninstallation:

   • Open the app, scroll to Danger Zone, and tap Uninstall App / Remove Admin. This clears Device Owner status and then uninstalls the app itself.

Releases

• GitHub Releases

Build

This project builds entirely on-device in Termux — no Gradle, no Android Studio. The build pipeline lives in build.sh and uses aapt2, ecj, d8, zip, and apksigner.

./build.sh

You need android.jar and framework-res.apk in ~/.android/, and a debug.keystore (path configurable in build.sh).