tech/ota/index.jd

page.title=OTA Updates
@jd:body

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    <h2>In this document</h2>
    <ol id="auto-toc">
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<p>Android devices in the field can receive and install over-the-air (OTA)
updates to the system and application software. Devices have a special
recovery partition with the software needed to unpack a downloaded update
package and apply it to the rest of the system.</p>
<p>This section describes the structure of these packages and the tools
provided to build them. It is intended for developers who want to
make the OTA update system work on new Android devices and those who are
building update packages for use with released devices. OTA updates are
designed to upgrade the underlying operating system and the read-only apps
installed on the system partition; these updates do <i>not</i> affect
applications installed by the user from Google Play.
</p>
<p>This section describes the OTA system as of the Android 5.x release. For
help porting OTA-related code from older releases, see <a href="#migrating">
Migrating from previous releases</a>.
</p>

<h2 id="android-device-layout">Android device layout</h2>
<p>The flash space on an Android device typically contains the following
partitions.</p>

<dl>
<dt>boot</dt>
<dd>Contains the Linux kernel and a minimal root filesystem (loaded into a RAM
disk). It mounts system and other partitions and starts the runtime located on
the system partition.</dd>
<dt>system</dt>
<dd>Contains system applications and libraries that have source code available
on Android Open Source Project (AOSP). During normal operation, this partition
is mounted read-only; its contents change only during an OTA update.</dd>
<dt>vendor</dt>
<dd>Contains system applications and libraries that do <em>not</em> have
source code available on Android Open Source Project (AOSP). During normal
operation, this partition is mounted read-only; its contents change only
during an OTA update.</dd>
<dt>userdata</dt>
<dd>Stores the data saved by applications installed by the user, etc. This
partition is not normally touched by the OTA update process.</dd>
<dt>cache</dt>
<dd>Temporary holding area used by a few applications (accessing this
partition requires special app permissions) and for storage of downloaded OTA
update packages. Other programs use this space with the expectation that files
can disappear at any time. Some OTA package installations may result in this
partition being wiped completely.</dd>
<dt>recovery</dt>
<dd>Contains a second complete Linux system, including a kernel and the
special recovery binary that reads a package and uses its contents to update
the other partitions.</dd>
<dt>misc</dt>
<dd>Tiny partition used by recovery to stash some information away about what
it's doing in case the device is restarted while the OTA package is being
applied.</dd></dl>

<h2 id="life-ota-update">Life of an OTA update</h2>
<p>A typical OTA update contains the following steps:</p>
<ol>
<li>Device performs regular check in with OTA servers and is notified of the
availability of an update, including the URL of the update package and a
description string to show the user.</li>
<li>Update downloads to a cache or data partition, and its cryptographic
signature is verified against the certificates in
<code>/system/etc/security/otacerts.zip</code>. User is prompted to install the
update.</li>
<li>Device reboots into recovery mode, in which the kernel and system in the
recovery partition are booted instead of the kernel in the boot partition.</li>
<li>Recovery binary is started by init. It finds command-line arguments in
<code>/cache/recovery/command</code> that point it to the downloaded package.
</li>
<li>Recovery verifies the cryptographic signature of the package against the
public keys in <code>/res/keys</code> (part of the RAM disk contained in the
recovery partition).</li>
<li>Data is pulled from the package and used to update the boot, system,
and/or vendor partitions as necessary. One of the new files left on the system
partition contains the contents of the new recovery partition.</li>
<li>Device reboots normally. <ol style="list-style-type:lower-alpha">
<li>The newly updated boot partition is loaded, and it mounts and starts
executing binaries in the newly updated system partition.</li>
<li>As part of normal startup, the system checks the contents of the recovery
partition against the desired contents (which were previously stored as a file
in <code>/system</code>). They are different, so the recovery partition is
reflashed with the desired contents. (On subsequent boots, the recovery
partition already contains the new contents, so no reflash is necessary.)</li>
</ol></li>
</ol>
<p>The system update is complete!</p>

<h2 id="migrating">Migrating from Previous Releases</h2>

<p>When migrating from Android 2.3/3.0/4.0 release, the major change is the
conversion of all the device-specific functionality from a set of C functions
with predefined names to C++ objects. The following table lists the old
functions and the new methods that serve a roughly equivalent purpose:</p>

<table>
<tbody>
<tr>
<th>C function</th>
<th>C++ method</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>device_recovery_start()</td>
<td>Device::RecoveryStart()</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>device_toggle_display()<br>
device_reboot_now()<br>
</td>
<td>RecoveryUI::CheckKey()<br>
(also RecoveryUI::IsKeyPressed())<br>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>device_handle_key()</td>
<td>Device::HandleMenuKey()</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>device_perform_action()</td>
<td>Device::InvokeMenuItem()</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>device_wipe_data()</td>
<td>Device::WipeData()</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>device_ui_init()</td>
<td>ScreenRecoveryUI::Init()</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>

<p>Conversion of old functions to new methods should be reasonably
straightforward. Don't forget to add the new <code>make_device()</code>
function to create and return an instance of your new Device subclass.</p>