OpenGApps AOSP based build system

Disclaimer

1. Use this at your own risk. Cyanogenmod received a cease and desist letter from Google when they included Google Apps in their ROM. See: A Note on Google Apps for Android
2. While this project places code in vendor/google/build, This project is in no way affiliated with, sponsored by, or related to Google. Placement of code in vendor/google/build is only done because it is required by the AOSP build process (more on that later).

Getting started

1. Add the build system, and the wanted sources to your manifest.

Find your manifest file. Check ${ANDROID_BUILD_TOP}/.repo/manifest/

and add the following towards the end:

<remote name="opengapps" fetch="https://github.com/opengapps/"  />

<project path="vendor/google/build" name="aosp_build" revision="master" remote="opengapps" />
<project path="vendor/opengapps/sources/all" name="all" clone-depth="1" revision="master" remote="opengapps" />
<!-- If you need other/additional targets, follow the same template: -->
<project path="vendor/opengapps/sources/arm" name="arm" clone-depth="1" revision="master" remote="opengapps" />

2. Set the desired OpenGapps variant

In your device/manufacturer/product/device.mk file, in the beginning, add:

GAPPS_VARIANT := <variant>

where <variant> is one of the package types in lowercase. E.g:

GAPPS_VARIANT := stock

3. Include the opengapps-packages.mk file

The opengapps-packages.mk file will make the Android build system build the necessary PRODUCT_PACKAGES, and include the necessary PRODUCT_COPY_FILES.

In device/manufacturer/product/device.mk file, towards the end, add:

$(call inherit-product, vendor/google/build/opengapps-packages.mk)

4. Build Android

Customizations

Adding extra packages

You can add packages from versions higher then your set version. E.g. if you want to include Chrome, but you use GAPPS_VARIANT:=micro

In your device/manufacturer/product/device.mk just add, for example:

PRODUCT_PACKAGES += Chrome

This uses the module name. You can find the module name for a package by checking vendor/google/build/modules/ and look at the LOCAL_MODULE value.

Force stock package overrides

You can force GApps packages to override the stock packages. This can be defined in two ways inside device/manufacturer/product/device.mk.

For all package:

GAPPS_FORCE_PACKAGE_OVERRIDES := true

On a per-app basis, add the GApps package to GAPPS_PACKAGE_OVERRIDES. Example:

GAPPS_PACKAGE_OVERRIDES := Chrome

Disable stock packages overrides

You can tell the GApps packages not to override the stock packages. This can be defined inside device/manufacturer/product/device.mk by adding the GApps package to GAPPS_BYPASS_PACKAGE_OVERRIDES. Example:

GAPPS_BYPASS_PACKAGE_OVERRIDES := Chrome

Force the system to get the correct DPI package for your device

By default, the latest package version will be selected with the closest DPI. You can force the system to select either a matching DPI package or "nodpi" package even if it is not the latest version.

This can be defined inside device/manufacturer/product/device.mk using:

GAPPS_FORCE_MATCHING_DPI := true

DEX pre-optimization

It is possible to build Android with dex preoptimization. This results in a quicker boot time, at the cost of additional storage used on /system.

This is normally done by setting the value:

WITH_DEXPREOPT := true

in BoardConfig.mk. This will, by default, if set to true, also enable DEX Preoptimization for Google Apps.

You can disable this entirely by setting:

DONT_DEXPREOPT_PREBUILTS := true

How it works

The OpenGApps AOSP based build system is placed in vendor/google/build and includes a file called config.mk. This is loaded by the AOSP build system very early, and allows us to define the necessary "functions" and build targets.

in build/core/main.mk:

# Include the google-specific config
-include vendor/google/build/config.mk

We use this hook to define two targets:

BUILD_GAPPS_PREBUILT_APK # - for apps
BUILD_GAPPS_PREBUILT_SHARED_LIBRARY # - for shared libraries

These use the already existing AOSP build infrastructure for prebuilt APKs and SHARED_LIBRARYs, but removes a lot of the boilerplate.

These two targets take care of locating the correct APK/libraries in an architecture-independent way. The AOSP based build system already prioritizes SoC architecture. E.g. if it finds an apk in sources/arm64 and sources/arm, it will automatically prioritize sources/arm64.

The APK target will also scan the APK for any libraries, and if it finds libraries it will get the AOSP build system to automatically extract them and place them at the expected place.

Caveats

Some modules are missing overrides

With reference to the package comparison, currently only package overrides has been setup for a GAPPS_VARIANT of micro or lower, + Chrome.

Pull requests to add package overrides for more modules is welcome. See modules/Chrome/Android.mk for an example.

This has currently only been tested on a 5.1 ARM based device

Your milage may vary.

Chrome on Lollipop requires an extra patch

Run these commands:

cd build
curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/opengapps/aosp_build/master/patches/Lollipop/0001-Fix-Chrome.patch | git am -

(Patch only tested on 5.1.1 r37).