1. Ensure that your Android container is rooted, and that the rootfs is writable.
(If you've already used the rooting script, but you find the Android rootfs still isn't writeable, this may help).
2. Download the Xposed framework installer app (to ~/Downloads).
3. Install the app via the Chrome OS shell (as root), e.g. :
sudo su -setenforce 0printf "pm install /storage/emulated/0/Download/XposedInstaller_3.1.5.apk" | android-sh printf reboot | android-shNB: If the prompt to grant root access doesn't show up at this point, see step 2. of the older instructions further down this page.
5. Once the framework installer app indicates it is 'Done', then reboot.
The above steps should work on current Chrome OS versions. If you find it doesn't work for you, feel free to leave a comment on this post.
The original blog post is below...
Just a short post to note that it is now possible to successfully install and use Xposed in Android in Chrome OS. It works for me on CrOS version 67.0.3390.0 canary (arm), but it may be possible on some earlier builds, too.*
I created a shell script that copies over Xposed's files some time ago, just as an experiment to see if it worked, but did not have success booting Android after modifying the rootfs with the script. I decided to take another look recently, and realised that it had a couple of bugs. Once those were fixed, I was able to successfully install Xposed with my script.
After success with a script based approach, I thought I'd try using the official installer app, and found that it actually isn't necessary to copy the files manually/with a script. Given a writeable Android rootfs, the installer app was able to install the framework successfully, as long as I allowed the app to gain root (which, on at least one CrOS version, necessitated temporarily setting 'Default Access' in SuperSU to grant root automatically, since the regular pop-up root request prompt didn't appear for this app).
Here are the exact steps I took to install Xposed from its installer app.
1. After creating a rooted writeable Android rootfs with the rooting script, I downloaded the latest Xposed installer app from the Xposed announcement thread on xda.
2. Next, I had to open the SuperSU app, go into its settings and temporarily set 'Default Access' to 'Grant'.
3. After this, I simply clicked on 'Install/Update' in the Xposed installer, and then 'Install' again in the following menu.
3. After this, I simply clicked on 'Install/Update' in the Xposed installer, and then 'Install' again in the following menu.
Following this, Xposed was installed, and all that was left to do now was reboot Android. To reboot Android without having to reboot Chrome OS, in a root CrOS shell, I entered
printf reboot | android-sh
Just like on regular Android devices, the first boot after installing Xposed takes some time. To check on the progress (and to ensure that the Android container wasn't bootlooping, as had been the case when I'd previously attempted to install Xposed manually, without success, some time ago), I entered
printf logcat android-sh
into the CrOS root shell. Happily, unlike my previous attempts in the past, this time I could see the boot proceeding as expected.
After Android had loaded up, I went into the Xposed installer again, and added a few modules. Everything seems to be working as expected, as far as I can see, within certain limitations, mostly related to running in a container environment.
For example: adding shortcuts and actions to screen tap areas with 'Xposed Edge' works, but the shortcuts/actions only function when Android apps are actually on the screen. Also, the lack of 'parallel running of tasks' in the CrOS version I'm currently running could possibly be an issue.
In any case, now I actually have Xposed working, I can't seem to see much use for it at present. However, I guess it could possibly be useful for something in future.
*It seems not to be easily possible currently to install Xposed via the installer app on CrOS version 65 at present, due to a (temporary) issue mounting the Android rootfs as writeable at runtime. Installing files (manually, or via a script) into the container image while it is mounted elsewhere does still work. The writeable mount issue is also present on v66 but can be fixed by editing the container config.json (deleting the string "dev", from the "rootfs/root" section under "mounts".
After Android had loaded up, I went into the Xposed installer again, and added a few modules. Everything seems to be working as expected, as far as I can see, within certain limitations, mostly related to running in a container environment.
For example: adding shortcuts and actions to screen tap areas with 'Xposed Edge' works, but the shortcuts/actions only function when Android apps are actually on the screen. Also, the lack of 'parallel running of tasks' in the CrOS version I'm currently running could possibly be an issue.
In any case, now I actually have Xposed working, I can't seem to see much use for it at present. However, I guess it could possibly be useful for something in future.
*It seems not to be easily possible currently to install Xposed via the installer app on CrOS version 65 at present, due to a (temporary) issue mounting the Android rootfs as writeable at runtime. Installing files (manually, or via a script) into the container image while it is mounted elsewhere does still work. The writeable mount issue is also present on v66 but can be fixed by editing the container config.json (deleting the string "dev", from the "rootfs/root" section under "mounts".
