Android Things OTA Process

Question

I want to know process (step-by-step) Android Things handles Bundle package from OTA console. As i know, Android Things device will check OTA update every period, if Bundle from console is available then device downloads Bundle package, Right? And after receive Bundle package, how to Android Things execute it to update app?

Thanks for your help.

Answer 1

https://developer.android.com/things/console/app_bundle.html

A Bundle is simply another name for a ZIP file. When you do an Over The Air update, the whole image of the device is reflashed with a new version of Android. This includes the bundle.

Bundles are saved to the OEM partition on the device.

A bundle can contain the following:

• bootanimation.zip—Boot animation located in the root directory
• .apk—User-space driver as a service (action=BOOT_COMPLETED)
• .apk— The apk for the main entry point (action=MAIN, category=IOT_LAUNCHER)
• .apk—One of any number of apks that is launched by the main apk

The <main>.apk is the only required item in the bundle.

https://developer.android.com/things/console/update.html

How build updates work

• After you push an update, the new version becomes ready for download.
• update_engine is the part of the operating system that looks for updates. It checks for new versions every 5 hours.
• The device downloads the update and installs it to one of the A/B partitions.
• update_engine signals that the device is ready for a reboot.
• The device reboots to the new version (the other partition).

Note: Currently, you must trigger the reboot on the device. Run adb shell followed by reboot.

You can read even more detail here: https://source.android.com/devices/tech/ota/ab_updates

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With the latest version (DP8) you can now upload APKs straight to the console and the console will create the bundle for you