Database Develop

How to modify system file with RootExplorer systemless?

I've installed magisk.
I need to modify /system/emui/base/xml/hw_clone_app_list.xml.
How to edit this file systemless with RootExplorer?
Just edit it, and it will be systemless ?
Or I should to modify the file in /sbin/.core/mirror/system/... ?

To modify it systemlessly you need to create a Magisk module that mounts your edited file over the original.
Instructions here:
https://github.com/topjohnwu/Magisk/blob/master/docs/modules.md
And in the module template:
https://github.com/topjohnwu/magisk-module-template

Didgeridoohan said:
To modify it systemlessly you need to create a Magisk module that mounts your edited file over the original.
Instructions here:
https://github.com/topjohnwu/Magisk/blob/master/docs/modules.md
And in the module template:
https://github.com/topjohnwu/magisk-module-template
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OK, thanks.
So modify the file in /sbin/.core/mirror/system/ is not systemless?

dawnc said:
OK, thanks.
So modify the file in /sbin/.core/mirror/system/ is not systemless?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No worries, and no it's not.

dawnc said:
OK, thanks.
So modify the file in /sbin/.core/mirror/system/ is not systemless?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hello,
You can create a magisk module that copy the specifiq file into your mod path, edit it using sed (for exemple), all theses steps could be done into post-fs-data stage, so at each phone boots.
Take the module template from the link of Didgeridoohan, and put necessary cmd lines into post-fs-data.sh file:good:

Why is it so hard to do such a system modification with Magisk... smh.

Creating a module to replace an executable in /system/sbin?

There is an executable I am trying to replace in /system/sbin natively which appears in /sbin after booting, but doing so in a module doesn't appear to work since the sbin folder gets wiped in the modules directory after rebooting.
The executable appears to be extracted fine which I can see in /data/adb/modules_update/{mod}/system/sbin before rebooting, but after rebooting, the /data/adb/modules/{mod}/system folder is just empty.
I am looking at the module guide which also talks about overlay.d, but creating a overlay.d folder in the module folder doesn't appear to do anything (although the file does not get wiped unlike putting it in system).
Is this a bug or is there a different way of doing this? I am currently on Magisk 20.1.
Thanks!

I just realized that the overlay.d folder is inside the ramdisk of the boot image, rather than the module folder... I guess I will play around with it further and see how it goes...

It could also be a good idea to upload your module, module install log and the Magisk log from the reboot after installing.

[Help] Creating Module for vendor partition changes

Hello Fellow Users,
Let me start with the fact that I have zero experience of making flash modules (TWRP/Magisk) and am just dabbling around.
Some background, I found a TWRP flash zip file which makes changes to vendor partition of Redmi Note 7 Pro (violet) running MIUI OS (Android Q) - this is a sound mod.
Now, with TWRP file the issue is that if it doesn't work or has any issues, we need to dirty flash ROM all times (or atleast dirty flash the vendor partition). There is no one-click remove option.
Hence I thought why can't the same be done via Magisk systemless and dabbled around a bit. Below is my experience of the last 2 days.
Now, coming to the original TWRP file - it copies/replaces three folders with included files to vendor partition. Path of folders is following
Code:
/vendor/etc
/vendor/lib/soundfx
/vendor/lib64/soundfx
These 3 folders and similarly named files within them already exist by default in the phone prior to flashing.
Now basis the Magisk guides I saw around and wiki from @Zackptg5 I did the following changes to the default template:
1) Edited customize.sh to define folders to be replaced
Code:
REPLACE="
/vendor/etc
/vendor/lib/soundfx
/vendor/lib64/soundfx"
2) Since Magisk will always look for the vendor under the system folder and so I moved the vendor folder under system folder
Basis same, created attached module and flashed and it installed.
But then three queries in my mind:
1) Are the new files actually replaced systemless and in-use? My concerns as don't see any intended change in sound
2) Is there a way to check if new files are being used o available to system?
3) Is this method of putting replace under customize.sh file the way out? While studying some similar modules making changes to vendor partition, I found that they have default (no change) customize.sh but rather make changes to common/post-fs-data.sh etc
So, looking forward to feedback from users experienced in making Magisk module. Thanks in advance for your time and efforts!
PS: attached is the WIP module which I wrote and also got installed in Magisk Manager
TLDR: How to make a Magisk Module using TWRP files to ensure systemless modification of folder/files in the vendor partition

1 - The REPLACE variable is used to replace the directories you specify with empty folders, not with what you want to add systemlessly. You might want to follow the advice written in the customize.sh file and read the documentation (@topjohnwu has everything explained there):
https://topjohnwu.github.io/Magisk/guides.html
Edit: If you do want to first "remove" (systemlessly, of course) everything in those folders, then keep them in the REPLACE variable. I just realised that it's a little unclear if that's what you want to do or not...
2 - That's the correct procedure. If all you want to do is to add or replace some files to your device, the only thing you need is to put those files in the /system directory of your module. That's it. The customize.sh file is used if you want to customise the installation logic of your module (not necessary if you're just adding files to your device) and post-fs-data.sh and service.sh are boot scripts to run code at boot (again not necessary if you're just adding files systemlessly to your device, see the linked docs for details).
Right now your module isn't adding anything, since the directories in the module's system folder are all empty. There's nothing to add. All it does is to replace those directories with empty ones (see #1 above). I'd say that using MMT is way overkill for such a simple module...
One you've installed a module Magisk will mount that modules files over your existing ones at boot. If the file under the real system path matches the one found in the module directory (under /data/adb/modules) everything is working as it should.

@Didgeridoohan Thanks for taking our time to give detailed reply and guidance
Finally was able to successfully install the module (named AudioEngine) and I do see files under /data/adb/modules but I have the following issue:
All these new files are under:
/data/adb/modules/AudioEngine/system/vendor folder and not under
/data/adb/modules/AudioEngine/vendor folder
Is that ok? If yes, why do we see /data/adb/modules/AudioEngine/vendor separately too?
Attached is final module as well as the screenshot of /data/adb/modules/AudioEngine/ as seen in file manager.

The /vendor folder is a symlink to /system/vendor, created by Magisk. That's just how Magisk works...
From your screenshot it looks like things are working as they should.
That uninstall script looks unnecessary though. The module isn't placing or altering anything outside the module folder, so when uninstalled there won't be any leftovers anyway.

im also try to do something similar with some audio libs in vendor partition for poco f2 with miui12 however if i add any libs to go into vendor/lib, for some strange reason, i lose wifi. theres no issues if vendor/lib/soundfx or vendor/lib64 is occupied with files just the lib directory only. the actual files that are going into lib are not replacing anything but are new files

Trying to create a magisk module to edit rootfs

I am attempting to create a magisk module that will "replace" a file in /system/etc. I have created the module and successfully installed it but the changes are not reflected upon booting multiple times. I can 'adb shell cat $MAGISK/system/etc/file.xml' and see the changes have not been made by magisk and I can adb shell cat system/etc/audio_policy_configuration.xml and see the files have not been altered in any way.
I just want to copy a fuggin file to system/etc. I have spent hours trying to research how to copy files to system with magisk modules but they are dead end roads.
I need someone to finally answer the question of how to copy a file using magisks built in module function. I can create and install the module but I am not understanding the process of actually copying the file. I thought anything you put in the system folder in the module template, that it would get used instead of the one in the actual read only system/etc. But I made the directories and file with changes I want, installed it but it doesn't show up in magisk manager and the changes arent made by the module.
Any and all help is appreciated

I've already replied here:
https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/...agisk-module-developers.3846678/post-84749791
But, in your post in that thread (please don't double post) you didn't mention anything about already having created a module.
If you have the module installed already but don't see any changes, provide the Magisk log. But, make sure you're on the latest Magisk Canary release first so that the log is more detailed.
Providing your module could also be a good idea, to see if it's built correctly.

How to properly compress Magisk module .zip

Hello,
I'm trying to create my own Magisk module based on working modules and referencing the module instructions. Before getting too far, I wanted to make sure that the compression process worked correctly.
So, I downloaded a .zip module from the Magisk app (e.g. Wifi5ghzdisabler), moved .zip to my Ubuntu 20.04 PC using Google Drive, extracted the .zip (using Extract Here in Files context menu), compressed the module folder back to a .zip file (using Compress... in Files context menu) and then moved the new .zip back to the phone using Google Drive. No changes to any files were made. Then, I tried to install it from storage in the Magisk app (v23.0) on a OnePlus Nord N100 running Android 10, but I encountered the following error.
Installation Failed!
- Copying zip to temp directory
! Unzip error
Is this a compression issue or a permissions issue on the phone? I'm probably missing something simple. Thanks in advance.

DanHoliday said:
Hello,
I'm trying to create my own Magisk module based on working modules and referencing the module instructions. Before getting too far, I wanted to make sure that the compression process worked correctly.
So, I downloaded a .zip module from the Magisk app (e.g. Wifi5ghzdisabler), moved .zip to my Ubuntu 20.04 PC using Google Drive, extracted the .zip (using Extract Here in Files context menu), compressed the module folder back to a .zip file (using Compress... in Files context menu) and then moved the new .zip back to the phone using Google Drive. No changes to any files were made. Then, I tried to install it from storage in the Magisk app (v23.0) on a OnePlus Nord N100 running Android 10, but I encountered the following error.
Installation Failed!
- Copying zip to temp directory
! Unzip error
Is this a compression issue or a permissions issue on the phone? I'm probably missing something simple. Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You should upload your zip.

Thanks for the reply.
I've attached the original WiFi5GhzDisabler-v1(1).zip module downloaded from inside the Magisk app.
I've also attached WiFi5GhzDisabler-v1(1)-re-compressed.zip after downloading, extracting and re-compressing the original module it as described in my first post. I didn't make any changes to the files/folders themselves. I did notice they are different sizes (6.1KB original versus 8.6KB re-compressed).
I'm trying to learn more about the correct compression process/tool for these modules. I searched the forum and found a thread with a similar issue. Basically, the OP shared a .zip file that didn't work and another member did something and uploaded a "fixed" version with minimal insight into how it was done.
[HELP] This zip is not a Magisk Module
I would assume there isn't anything wrong with the files in the original module since it was probably reviewed before it was hosted in the Magisk app. It is also strange that the .zip file downloaded from the github repos for various modules don't work for me either, but that may be a separate issue.

Any ideas? The instructions do not include how to compress the module.

Take a close look at the original zip again, and compare it to the one you recompressed. You've put all the files in a directory inside the zip, in comparison to putting them directly in the root of the zip...
There's your problem.

Didgeridoohan said:
You've put all the files in a directory inside the zip, in comparison to putting them directly in the root of the zip...
There's your problem.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You're exactly right. I was incorrectly zipping the module folder itself rather than the files inside the folder. As you correctly pointed out, this creates a folder inside the zip that adds an extra layer between the files and the root of the zip.
Wow, what a simple mistake. With your help, the recompressed module installs fine now. I was able to install my own module too!
Thank you so much for your help. My issue has been resolved.