Android Market installation on Android Player in 15 min.
Alright, so most of you have already seen this thread:
http://forums.crackberry.com/blackbe...-later-632112/
And I think we need a place for questions, comments, and what not. The old thread is probably not a good place for it as we're approaching 20 pages that focus heavily on a previous version. So here's a thread for all the users of this to flock to!
So lets get started...
There's a few things you should do to prepare the PB for the process that are listed in the description at the link. First thing you need to do is to get the sys.android.bar file (search Google exactly for the file name), and then get it loaded to your device. (Okay, this seriously ended up being a stopping point for some people so we'll just link to it here: Multiupload.com - upload your files to multiple file hosting sites! )
You can load sys.android.bar using a few different methods, pick whichever works best for you. louis.keeper has put together a really nice graphical loader that's probably the best solution for most people, it's all drag and drop and the app takes care of the rest. Information on his loading method is here: http://forums.crackberry.com/blackbe...indows-619796/
I also put together a non-graphical batch file for installing bar files using components of the PlayBook SDK, it's a simple method, but it works well and is very lightweight. Information on my loading method is here: http://forums.crackberry.com/playboo...pworld-615199/
So now that you've dug up "sys.android.bar" and you've got it loaded using one of the methods above, go ahead and open it up on your PlayBook and let it get started. It will take about 2-3 minutes for the first startup of the Android player, after that it's about 30 seconds. Once it's open and sitting at a screen with "Recent Tasks" go ahead and close it out. This will get the directory structure setup in the shared folder, and also speed it up for the rest of this process.
Now it's time to copy the needed files to your PlayBook so you can follow along with the video. First, grab the needed zip file here: GApps-PB-rev2.zip, then copy it to the PB using one of the methods below.
And once again, there's two ways to access the PB file system, either via USB, or over the network share if enabled. The path that you're browsing to is basically the same, you want to copy files to the "/misc/android" folder under your shared files. If you're using USB to do this, the path will look something like P:\misc\android (With "P:" being the drive letter assigned to the PB). And if you're using the network share method, the path will look something like \\PLAYBOOK\media\misc\android (With "PLAYBOOK" being the IP address the PB is currently using)
Once you get that path open on your computer, you need to extract the entire contents of that folder to the open path. This should create 3 new folders on the PB named "apks", "download", and "google". The download folder is empty, but extract it there anyway, you need that folder created before installing Market apps. This section is VERY important! You need to make sure the "downloads" folder is created before you start this process or the permissions on it will be incorrect and you will be unable to delete the folder! If this happens you can move or rename the damaged "downloads" folder and create a new one either over usb or the wifi share. The only way to get rid of this folder if its created incorrectly is to do a system wipe. It doesn't hurt anything to rename or move it, but it's not ideal.
Got all that done and ready? If so, you're ready to follow the video for the rest of this how-to. Make sure you've got 15 minutes set aside and then head over here:
Setup Android player with Android Market on your PlayBook in 15 minutes or less. - YouTube
(Remember to take a look in the video description for additional information, most of it is already posted here, but any updates to the video will be posted there first.)
After you've got it installed you may wonder what the additional files are for in the "google/optional" folder. The contact and calendar apks are to sync your Gmail calendar and contacts to the Android player, and the MediaUploader.apk is responsible for uploading media to Google services. (YouTube uploading, attachments in Gmail, etc.) These files are non-essential and are included for those people who want to use those features. You can install them at any point after Market is installed, and do a reboot of the PB after they're installed to make sure they're all setup properly.
Please forgive the messiness of this thread, I'll clean up my OP later tonight or tomorrow but I wanted to get this thread started and going!
Let us know how it went for you! We'll use this thread for questions, comments, flames, all of it that relates to the Android Marketplace on your PlayBook. :cool:
Known issues:
Stuck at "Download starting" - Possible solutions: #1, #2 , #3(Bold text), #4
"Insufficient Storage Space" when installing downloaded app - Read the large bold paragraph above. (Workaround here if you've got the problem)
Gmail app flashes and closes email when trying to read emails. - Issue with the HTML rendering engine in Android, no fix yet.