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I want to root my device and then modify files on the system partition.

I want to enable multi user support and install busy box. But there are many other reasons why someone would want to do this.

My question is if this can disturb system updates (not app updates)?

Will a system update simply overwrite the old system image? (Reverting all my changes).

Or will the update fail?

To answer my question it would be good to know how an Android system update works. (File based/image based. Is it delta?)

zomega
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  • The answer is maybe unfortunately... All depends what you change, it can cause updates to fail, and if they go through and you have a patched boot image (common in rooting) and it get's over written, it might not boot after an update until the new image is patched again (you root again). It will not overwrite your system, updates are delta changes not entire images in almost every case. Basically once you root, make a system image backup and be prepared that any update could break your phone, but there is no definitive answer really. This post really belongs in Android Enthusiasts though. – acejavelin Apr 07 '22 at 13:43
  • why modify system? https://android.stackexchange.com/q/232388 – alecxs Apr 07 '22 at 15:14
  • This all depends on how your device OEM handles it. My experience with OnePlus 6 has been positive. OnePlus always detected that my system was modified and informed me that it would download complete OTA (not delta version) and install it. Because my device came with partition layout that supported seamless updates (A/B updates), system updates (which I rarely did anyway) worked out fine. "As expected" updates overwrote changes I had made to non-data partitions earlier. But I was able to update the device nonetheless. – Firelord Apr 07 '22 at 21:21
  • @alecxs Your post is about removing pre-installed apps. I want to do other things like editing the build.prop file (which is located on the system partition). – zomega Apr 08 '22 at 12:05
  • same applies - magisk has resetprop applet which does it systemless-ly ;) check the system.prop file – alecxs Apr 08 '22 at 13:21
  • @alecxs I have read "How to Install Magisk" and it seems I need to modify the boot and recovery image. I think then there is the same problem as when modifying the system image. – zomega Apr 09 '22 at 09:23
  • right, magisk lives in boot (or recovery for some samsung devices) but magisk used to keep backup of stock boot.img ready for OTA survival. btw having your mods in module handy makes it easier to restore – alecxs Apr 09 '22 at 09:34
  • there is nothing against rooting with other solution and modify /system (even possible on dynamic partitions) just beware of avb/dm-verity on recent android versions https://android.stackexchange.com/q/217116 – alecxs Apr 09 '22 at 09:43

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