Help adb sideload

[Choux]

Hello everybody

I am in the following case:
* Android phone started in recovery mode - with option: "Apply update from ADB"
* connected with a usb cable on a Windows 10 x64 workstation
* with ADB and Fastboot commands installed

Only .ZIP files can be installed on the mobile using the command:
adb sideload package_name.zip

If the file is not "signed", the following messages appear on the mobile:
..."verifying update package"
"E:footer is wrong"
"E: signature verification failed"
"Installation Aborted"

My question is :
How is it possible to transform an .APK file into a "signed" .ZIP file?
So the installation of this .ZIP file will not be rejected.

The purpose of this operation is to:
* be able to re-install the Gboard keyboard which is no longer active
* and thus be able to unlock the screen.
Currently when swiping the screen to enter the password, no keyboard appears...

In advance, thank you for your help.

Cordially,
(Kindly excuse my bad English...)

 

[Hadron]

Adb sideload in recovery is for installing system updates (you use adb install to sideload apps). But I guess you know that and are trying to install this to /system.

If it's telling you that the zip needs signing that suggests that your bootloader is locked. In which case the obvious question is how did you manage to uninstall the system keyboard? (I'm assuming it's the system keyboard because otherwise you could just install it like any other app).

Anyway if you do have a locked bootloader it will need you to sign it as Samsung, which we won't be able to help with (if that capability was publicly available it would make signing useless). So if you really need it installed to the system your options are to unlock the bootloader (which will factory reset the phone) or reflash the phone with official firmware from sammobile.com (which will reinstall everything, including the system keyboard).

Alternatively you could log into the play store from a computer and push the app to your phone from there. The only problem is that now you are in recovery mode you'll probably need to enter a PIN or password to log in again, and I don't know whether you have a keyboard to do that with (because even if you remote install it I don't know whether you'll have to do something in settings to activate it).

 

[Choux]

Thank you for your reply.

I'm new in this domain, and just trying to find a solution to preserve data and installed applications.
When the phone (Wiko Freddy - not root) was still on, and not on standby, I left the room for a few minutes, forgetting to lock the phone and someone had fun disabling the GBoard keyboard.
The phone went to sleep after 10 minutes normally.
When I came back, trying to unlock the phone to use it again, the keypad no longer appeared.
I later learned the manipulation that was performed on the phone.
When the phone restarts, it's the same thing. The screen is locked, and the keyboard no longer appears.
So I'm looking if there is a possibility to reactivate the keyboard or reinstall it via ADB.
If that's not possible, I will factory reset the phone as a last resort.
If there is another possibility to reactivate the keyboard or deactivate the password without destroying the data, I am interested...

Thank you so much for your help.

 

[Hadron]

Ah, disabled rather than uninstalled. That makes more sense.

OK, try this: go to a computer (or other mobile device), visit play.google.com via the web browser, and sign in to your Google account. Find GBoard and you should see a green button with (the French equivalent of) "install" or "install on more devices". Click on that, if it asks you to select a device select your phone, and tell it to install. I just tested this with an app that I have disabled on my phone (Chrome), and it re-enabled the app. So with any luck it will enable GBoard on your phone too.

(If you have 2 factor authentication enabled on your Google account you'll need to choose a method which doesn't require your phone).

I'm still surprised they could disable it if it was the system keyboard app, but it's up to the manufacturer whether they allow that and I guess Wiko didn't think this through properly and allowed it.

Bonne chance!

 

[Choux]

Ah, disabled rather than uninstalled. That makes more sense.

OK, try this: go to a computer (or other mobile device), visit play.google.com via the web browser, and sign in to your Google account. Find GBoard and you should see a green button with (the French equivalent of) "install" or "install on more devices". Click on that, if it asks you to select a device select your phone, and tell it to install. I just tested this with an app that I have disabled on my phone (Chrome), and it re-enabled the app. So with any luck it will enable GBoard on your phone too.

(If you have 2 factor authentication enabled on your Google account you'll need to choose a method which doesn't require your phone).

I'm still surprised they could disable it if it was the system keyboard app, but it's up to the manufacturer whether they allow that and I guess Wiko didn't think this through properly and allowed it.

Bonne chance!

Thank's a lot. I will try and give you soon the result...
...Fingers crossed...

 

[Choux]

I just test this solution.
As the mobile was never associated with any google account, I received an error message.
As you speak French : "Ce compte Google n'est encore associé à aucun appareil. Veuillez accéder à l'application Play Store sur votre appareil avant d'installer des applications."
To do this, I have to configure "Play Store" on the mobile.
But with any keyboard to unlock the screen, it's actually not possible....

 

[Hadron]

Oh, crap. I hadn't considered that, since almost all androids are attached to a Google account.

adb install won't work because you need to boot the phone and unlock the screen before you'll be able to do that (and turn USB debugging on most likely).
I don't know whether installing a full set of official software would do this without wiping the phone in the process (assuming you can find the software package for that phone).
A factory reset will do it, but we're trying to avoid the data loss.

When I've met "no keyboard" problems before it's usually been on a rooted device. If that were the case and you had a custom recovery we could figure out a way, but if it's an unmodified phone with the official recovery module I'm not sure I can think of one. You could try "adb install" with an apk of a keyboard, but I'm pretty sure that won't work in recovery mode using an official recovery.

If you end up doing a factory reset maybe remove the SD card (if it has one) first. Just to make sure that any stuff that's on there can't be erased.

 

[Choux]

Hi Hadron,

Thank you for all your tips and remarks.

I have a last question

When installing the package from play.google.com :

If the mobile is linked to a google account:
there will be no problem to install a package on the phone connect with an usb cable.

If the mobile is not linked to a google account :
As Google can push any the package and install any the package remotely, I suppose that a way should exist
to instal the package with a dedicated tool from the computer.

============
To complete this procedure, if you have any solution of this part, it will be great.
============

Cordially

 

[svim]

Just for clarity, are you sure that your previous keyboard app was actually Gboard or just assuming it was? Seems odd to for a Google app like Gboard to be installed on a device that was never connected to a Google account given how Gboard's functionality is so tightly integrated to a user's Google account. There are numerous other keyboard apps that are also very versatile and not tied to Google's oversight.